Psychic Ambition
by Charlie911
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke is attractive, eloquent, and the type of cool that just makes a girl want to juggle. So...why is it so difficult to get to know him? Maybe the problem is he already knows everything about you. For sequel, go to Echo Uchiha
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Psychic Ambition  
**Summary:** Uchiha Sasuke is attractive, eloquent, and the type of cool that just makes a girl want to juggle. So...why is it so difficult to get to know him? Maybe the problem is he already knows everything about you and the you he knows is missing way too many screws.

**Chapter 1**

Neurotic. Yes. He would say he is neurotic. No, he isn't neurotic. His head is. _Look at me!_ It can't possibly be normal. _Please just look my way! _Not since he was eight and thought everyone was the same, but everyone wasn't the same. Oh no, they're different in many ways. His mother used to tell him that. And when the question of himself arises, she said he was special - deeply emphasizing on the word special. Only of course he thought it meant talented and intelligent because he is talented and intelligent. The meaning was left to be used generally until he started hearing the voices.

He is Uchiha Sasuke.

The problem hadn't started with the past seventeen years of his life. It began three centuries ago when his ancestor, who was a self-absorbed maniac, decided to trick a wizard into granting him powers then after five years of trust and loyalty, he poisoned the wizard. Who knew the fucking wizard was a really powerful demonic force of hell? So the "wizard" cursed every _male_ in the Uchiha line to wonder the worldly plane forever and be torture by the insanity of the non-living, never to rest, if they do not find their true love before midnight on their eighteenth birthday, coincidentally the same age and time his ancestor had died. What made this worse was that his ancestor is gay. There's nothing wrong with him being gay except if you're going to turn gay, at least understand that someone who has the power to give you power, it is reasonable for them to kill you. Luckily, his ancestor had a sister, who happened to be very pretty and fertile.

_No, look at me!_ Sasuke told the voice to shut its' trap, not like he could do anything about it. Now Uchiha Sasuke is seventeen years old and his eighteenth birthday is only eight months away. And you thought _your_ love life was screw upside down, but at the very least, people have a love life. Sasuke, on the other hand, does not have a love life; in fact, he has no life. His days, from Monday to Friday, are consisted of school, homework, and cram school. On weekends, instead of enjoying his rotting youth, he ventures on _another_ four hours of cram school before going home to do _extra_-homework and studying. Do you know what he does for fun? He reads one of those fat dictionary-like books. _Oh my god, he is like so totally cute!_

He _almost_ wince when the perkiness of that sentence entered his mind. Oh, you haven't notice? Uchiha Sasuke has the power of telepathy and so hears everything and everyone. In his wee little mind, as if it wasn't crowded enough with trigonometric functions and classical theories of quantum mechanics alone. He is now at a party, an occasion on which people can assemble for social interactions and entertainment. Sasuke hate parties. Not simply hate, but loathe, despise, detest. Because at parties it usually included more than half of the school's female populations. Sasuke sip his drink as he block out yet another annoying voice. The drink wasn't tasty. What could be tasty coming out of the sink? If he drank something else, he might wake up in the middle of nowhere naked with an even stranger taste in his mouth. Water bottles are no longer safe anymore. The females, a.k.a demonic creatures of hell, have manufactured some kind of weapon to poison water bottles without even opening it. Its like a miracle, a really bad miracle. This is why he is keeping all telepathic line open in case one of these freaking hyenas, who are thinking of doing unspeakable things to his body, decides to take action. Sasuke raised his hand and brushed a strand of dark hair away from his eyes; that act alone earned him five mind squeals. His black eyes glared around the room, seeking out a certain brunette. Sadly the brunette is too drunk to notice him. After this party, he is ending any connection with the brunette.

Inuzuka Kiba, the brunette, had bought a condo with his girlfriend, Hinata, and only recently decided to have a self-welcoming party, which he told Sasuke specifically was going to be attended by _close_ _friends_ only. Sasuke miscalculated exactly how friendly and easily manipulated Kiba can be. _Should I go talk to him?_ thought a male freshmen. Sasuke glared until he saw white. He, unfortunately, is the kind of beautiful that attracts both sides of the fucking swing. Sasuke thought how much alcohol everyone in the room has consumed. Most of their thoughts were fuzzy, but he figure it was a good thing after seeing a flash of his noble self straddled on the floor, absent of any clothing or decency; a lot of them contained so much S/M materials he actually felt a tinge of fear.

He sighed inwardly, but kept a sharp mind. Digging deeper into Sasuke's inner thoughts, he wasn't bother by the whole psychic business; the death at the age of eighteen more or so unnerved him. No, it wasn't the death. He handles death way better than his brother. Its the whole I'm-going-to-be-torture-even-though-I'm-dead part. Sasuke hates being bother, so to spend eternity with strangers whose whole purpose is to bother him is at the top of his list. Being cursed twisted Sasuke's fears a bit.

"Still sulking, I see."

Sasuke didn't bother turning to see who it was, knowing the voice all too well as his cousin, Neji. "I thought you didn't want to come," he said. When none reply came, he glance briefly at the boy and saw his eyes train on a person across the room. It was in the glance that he saw Neji's eyes glaze over. Of all the powers in the world, Sasuke had to get stuck with a cousin who can see the future, but in a way, he is glad. Neji's clairvoyance is extremely powerful with a 99.9 percent accuracy. The reason it wasn't a full 100 percent is on account of the actions of a person, or people, which is constantly changing. He keeps an eyes out on things for the family. Literally. "You saw something?" he asked.

He had to ask or otherwise there'll be no answer. It is a line neither he nor Neji crossed. Sasuke doesn't read Neji's mind and Neji doesn't _deliberately_ see Sasuke's future. This is one of those unique situations where Neji can not help, but see what he see. If he wanted to, Neji can automatically use his power with the right amount of concentration. However, it does put a great strain on his body if used for too long. They have suggested using his power to find that "true love", but apparently the curse considers it cheating and so it is useless.

"Strange," Neji said, his eyes growing beyond pale than their bluish pale colors as he tap more into his power. Another 'strange' came from his mouth before Sasuke kick him in the shin. Neji bite his lip and glare at him, but his eyes show gratefulness. Neji can sometimes be a little too into his power. Its an family trait. Remember, their ancestor was an egomaniac. He calm himself down and drain all of the water he had. Sasuke silently held out his own cup. For some strange reason, Neji gets really dehydrated when using his power. "Ugh, you really need to stop drinking from the sink, cousin," he complained, but drank all of it despite. When he was finished, he _still_ didn't tell Sasuke. After a couple of silences, Sasuke contemplated on kicking Neji again.

"Are you gonna tell me or not?" asked Sasuke irritatingly. For Neji to be so amaze, it had to be one hell of a vision.

Neji merely raise an eyebrow at his impatience. It was his way of telling Sasuke to mind his manners. Oh, the guy is really into respect and what not. "A really interesting boy. He's really easy to spot," he said, nodding to the left corner. "Hinata introduced us a while ago."

Sasuke followed his gesture to the group of people, Kiba being among them. He tried to figure out which boy Neji was talking about. It definitely wasn't Kiba. He thought about scanning their mind, but before he could, his eyes fell on a certain blonde boy. The boy seemed normal enough, but Sasuke couldn't help being captivated by the brilliant color of his eyes. His clothes were a bit odd. They were very...orange. "Was this really interesting or was it so creepy it was interesting?"

"Oh. I didn't see his future. I saw _your_ future. You were saying something...Naruto, I think?"

"So?"

"You looked downright piss," Neji said, while simultaneously nodding his head in a mellow beat.

"And this is suppose to be interesting?"

"Well you're not exactly one for the expression 'downright piss' so yes, it is going to be _very_ interesting."

"Ah. This explains everything," said Sasuke sarcastically. Suddenly Naruto laughed and the sound of his voice...? Sound...? The stereo was blasting - well, the walls were vibrating. Need he say more? So where the heck was the sound coming - oh right, his head. Sasuke felt embarrassed that he forgotten. But why is Naruto laughing? He felt curious as people rarely laugh so sincerely in their and his head.

_He's looking at me!_ Sasuke felt a drench of dread at the fangirl-like voice and he read the blond's mind to make sure he read right. _He's hot!_ Sasuke paled and half of his sanity left him. The first person he found attractive in God knows how long - wait a minute, he found a _guy_ attractive? Sasuke harden his face and turn away to something less interesting. Neji must've seen danger. Why else would he be angry?

_Eh, he looks disappointed._

He spy a glance and found the blond's attention on his friend, still talking and smiling. Sasuke found curiosity leaking again into his emotions and immediately scan the boy's mind for more "scenes" of him. The boy is called Uzumaki Naruto, in class 3C - an understanding reason why Sasuke has never seen him before - and a friendly, but naive guy. Small and random images of Naruto looking at him, a few desires, but that was about it. Wow, nothing could make Sasuke want to kiss him more. Not. Sasuke, desperate and lonely for someone, would not stoop so low; he has pride, a freaking reputation - one that would inevitable end on his eighteenth birthday, but at least people will know him as a intelligent individual with some few spec of looks, who did not date anyone below his station. Well, he's never had a "date" before.

"Hi."

Sasuke blink in surprise. Either Neji developed shape-shifting power or that really is Naruto in front of him. Where _is_ Neji? He read Hinata and saw an image of Neji snickering at him before having left the building. He growl under his breath, unaware of the easily offended blonde.

"Gee, you could have just told me to go away."

Sasuke realize what he was doing and felt his face growing hot. "Sorry."

This made Naruto smile and shrug off the offense. "So do you always stand by yourself at parties?" Naruto teased then took a swig of beer as he waited for a respond. _Is he always so uptight?_

Sasuke twitch at the slight. More than anything, he hated being insulted. Beware that in Sasuke's world, that was an insult. "No," he said, taking a pause. "Sometimes I sit."

A blank thought ran through Naruto's head before he laughed out loud. "Y-You seriously just made a joke." _Cute._

The psychic is definitely stuck between being insulted again or...blush. _Blush?_ Sasuke frown at his own thoughts. He couldn't completely comprehend this, but he feel the need to defend himself. "I've made jokes before," he said, a little irritated at being thought so seriously by Naruto. And there his own thoughts go again.

_Yeah, more like having a stick shove up your ass._

Sasuke force himself to swallow that. He was entirely and annoyingly confused as to how to respond. Naruto, even having thought of such a rude thing, was still smiling up at him, as innocent as can be. Usually a person with bad thoughts show a tinge of it on their faces, but Naruto has utterly cover up everything, leaving Sasuke to comprehend every meaning by _sound_ alone. Oh, thoughts have sounds, like sarcasm or whatever. Suddenly Sasuke blush. Truly blush; deep red lobster style. For apparently no reason at all, his head suddenly filled itself with erotic images, but it wasn't him. It was from Naruto! But the blonde is smiling so innocently and care-free - his attention is even elsewhere. Sasuke seriously had a momentarily doubt that the images were from Naruto.

He force himself to calm down and clear away all connections to Naruto's thoughts. He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Sasuke has never need to calm himself from someone's thoughts before. Other things maybe. When he found strength enough to focus, he found Naruto staring at him quietly and at a really close distance too. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, shrugging indifferently and took a step back.

Sasuke silently breath with relief, but he scold himself when he realized what he was doing. He really didn't want to read the blond's mind in case there were some more of those "things" in there, but he gritted his teeth, told himself it was for future purposes, and went ahead. Nothing happened, not a peep. He scan again, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes for a long second as if he was annoyed and has decided to permanently ignored Naruto. It may seem like a second to everyone else, but Sasuke probably spent several minutes in the mind of another and now he was in Naruto. Except there wasn't anything to see, only a complete darkness. A bright light shimmered in the distance and curious, Sasuke went after it, but it became a bad idea when he couldn't "see" anymore. Something warm touched his forehead, startling him into reality and...Naruto was gone. Literally

Quickly, Sasuke searched someone who saw what happened. His eyes whirl and his stomach felt sick as pictures and thoughts flew through his head. There was a pounding in his head and his breathing came a little quicker than usual, signs telling him he was exhausting himself, but he didn't stop. He felt a momentary joy when his thoughts landed on Sakura and he peer through to Naruto.

The last thing he saw before collapsing was the face of a confused Naruto in Sakura's jealous mind. His last thought is a hope that the idea about him waking naked isn't going to come true.

* * *

A stern face with blue eyes stare at him through the mist. Sasuke try to get a clear image, but he already knew who it was. Naruto, he whispered in his head, but the name echo outside of his mind. He took a cautious step closer to figure out why Naruto was…here? _Where was here?_ Sasuke wonder this and the thought did not echo. Through the smoke, Sasuke caught a glimpse of Naruto's lips moving. He try to read the words, but it was weird. He thought the language was familiar, however the meanings blurred until he felt doubt that maybe it was made-up. He tensed. Naruto's hand reached out to him, never touched him. They weren't close enough. Sasuke grimace and grip his head. It felt like being pricked by needles and something was swarming around. It was trying to get in. The pain grew and grew. Sasuke screamed. He knew he was screaming and yet, no sound left his mouth.

Then it ended with a loud, "-OW! I DON'T KNOW! OMG, IS HE GONNA DIE?"

Sasuke scrunch up his face in irritation, wondering why he was hearing Kiba's voice. It wasn't in his head, it was coming from outside. He opened his eyes and when he felt himself waking up, he also felt the heavy weight of reality on his body. His head pounded with a heavy migraine and everything felt so sluggish. "What happened?" he asked, or meant to ask except his voice was so parched it came out more like scratchy nails than words.

"THANK THE LORD HE'S ALIV-OW!"

He sat up slowly and lean against the wall for support. Kiba was laid out on the ground, his leg twitching. Neji stood not to far from him, an annoyed look marring his face and his hand in the position of a well-performed karate chop. Noticing Sasuke was attempting to speak again, Neji handed him a glass of water first. Sasuke drained it as if his life depended on every drop, which it technically almost did.

"You fainted."

He almost spat the water out. Never in his life had he collapsed or done anything remotely relating to that devil word, but it happened. "I used too much power," he said - there always was excuses, you see.

Planted on Neji's face is a smirk because for reasons beyond normality, he knows everything. "I wonder - what would possess you to use your power like that?"

"Well, _dear_ cousin, if you had stay a while longer, you would've noticed just how much alcohol every girl in the entire room has consumed."

Neji still smirk, but the confidence slipped. A very good thing about people with Neji's clairvoyance, they can't look into the past to make heads or tails of facts or false information. Unfortunately Sasuke also knows that Neji just so happened to be very intelligent. _Fortunately_, everyone at the party was pretty much wasted at the time and can no longer recollect any events of the time they came to the party and passed out, rendering Neji's interrogation methods useless. That and Neji's fan girls (unfortunately, they do exist and in very large numbers) were also at the party. They would love to be interrogated by him.

"I need to get ready for school. What time is it?"

"Almost ten."

"It's a Sunday, not to mention you have a massive hangover and you're still going to school?" Kiba said abruptly. It seems he awoke in the mess and felt the need to comment. Kiba, ironically being Sasuke's one and only close friend, had already known about the Uchiha and Hyuuga histories when Sasuke, one day in kindergarten, told him that his goldfish, cat, _and_ dog will die - all on the same day, _five_ days before they died miserably. See, the dog chased the cat, got hit by a car, then the goldfish got eaten by the cat and then the cat chocked on the goldfish. A funny situation to others, but it traumatized little Kiba, who learned a very important lesson that day: Never mix predators and prey in the same room, especially when you're friends with a psychic because they will tell you details by details with color coded pictures. Come to think of it, it wasn't the deaths of his pets that actually did the traumatizing.

"It is not a hangover," Sasuke argued weakly as he _tried_ to get dress. In his defense, his head just ain't right. His body gave up right in the middle and Sasuke collapsed back onto the bed.

"See? You can't even stand."

Neji, who had been thinking over the situation, finally spoke. "I called ani-sama," he said, shrugging nonchalantly when Sasuke opened his mouth to protest, more like yell. "You fainted and the rules said it's a very bad thing. He wants you to come home."

"But -."

"Or he comes here and get you."

The last statement suck all of Sasuke's argument right out of his head. Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's brother slash patriarch, can see into the past. It was probably one of God's sick joke, or the demon. Either way, it sucks plus you have no privacy. You can't even lie. You definitely can't tease either. There was once a cousin who teased another cousin...who had fire-starting power. The end.

* * *

**A/N:** The school are rank by A, B, C, and D. A is like an elite class with special students, a class which Sasuke belongs to so you can see why Sasuke would think it'll ruin his reputation if he went out with Naruto.

But yeah, a new story! Hope you guys like it.

**Narra:** I'm back!

And there's _it_. I prefer to call it a defect of the temporal lope.

**Narra:** Well, I'm your temporal lope. So you're just insulting yourself by saying that.

This defect has gotten smarter.

**Narra:** Yeah. _(blowing on his nails)_ I still got it.


	2. Chapter 2

So a reader said about how Naruto and Kiba were air heads and they didn't like it. Kiba, yes, I did intend for him to be one. I feel being an air head is part of his personality plus he was probably dropped a few times as a child so 'thick head, but half of a brain'. For Naruto, I can't see how he would be an air head. From the manga, yes. Is it because of what he said in his head? _'He's hot!' _And there was that thing about Sasuke looking his way. I tend to think people's mind are more exciting than they let on hence the exclamation marks.

**Narra:** You write way too many Naruto fanfiction.

Ah, there's that migraine.

**Narra:** Apparently. Who ever thought it was clever to talk to yourself through a character made up by your self? Oh, you.

Well, I must be clever 'cause look at how smart you're sounding.

**Narra:** (speechless)

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Sasuke begrudgingly let Neji help him out the car. His feet obeyed him and half dragged itself on the ground, making Neji work extra hard. He didn't quite reach the door before it opened and a woman of sixty rushed him into the house.

"Bocchama, aruji-sama is waiting for you in the study," she said with an edge of urgency. Don't worry. She sounds like that all the time, even when there's nothing wrong. The near-elderly maid fling her arms this way and that as if she can do CAT scans on his body. She's very paranoid. Living in a house with psychics, you never know what to expect. The maid is actually the Head of Servant, a very big title. Its pretty much the only title, being the only servant in the house and all. The maid's ancestor actually served the stupid-guy-who-placed-the-curse-on-them-all and so here we are.

Sasuke's face turned into a frown and he look at his cousin, but only received an indifferent shrug. His frown turn irritated. "Psychic, my ass," he muttered.

"Just so you know, I saw that."

* * *

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably after Neji and the old lady left him sitting in a chair. The chair itself was oddly cozy. What he couldn't stand is the condition of the room; and it is a serious condition. His brother is in need of a decorator. The place looks like a shop for the slightly insane and if that doesn't bring an image to mind, Itachi's area of the room is the only one where the sun doesn't shine. Sasuke has witness the sun making a weird angle, as if dodging the sight of this unholy place. There is even a skull near the lamp. With glass eyes. On several occasions, it moves.

"Sasuke."

"Yes, Nii-san?" He tensed, out of habit. Add cuffs and you'll have a scene right out of CSI. Sasuke always dread talking to his brother because Itachi always bring up conversation he doesn't want to talk about. Right now in his brother's hand is a bunch of documents. Seeing the business figure that Itachi is, one would not think they were pictures and infos of girls.

"At twelve you will accompany me to the Milam night restaurant."

"But I..."

Itachi silence him with a mere glance. "Sai has a couple of outfits he would like you to try on."

"Its still ten thirty; how many outfits does he have?"

"Knowing you, it will probably take a few." Itachi set the documents down then went over to the shelf, pretending to browse for a book. There was a pause in which Sasuke thought he was going to be scold at. "Did you enjoy the party last night?"

That was a ridiculous question. Of course he _didn't_ enjoy the party. Matter of fact, it wasn't suppose to be a party, but a _small_ get-together. Something tells Sasuke that this was all planned by Kiba and his brother to get him to find a girl, but Sasuke will not be led off the subject. "Should we really be talking about this right now? You're dying for crying out loud."

"Nonsense. I am in perfectly good health."

"You only have two weeks left before you turn eighteen. Its more important that you find a girl than me."

"Sasuke, we have already talked about this."

He recognized the impatience tone in his brother's voice and knew he should stop pushing his luck, but he just couldn't take anymore of this. He stood up just in case there need to be any running. "What if I don't want to find a girl?"

"You will." Then Itachi's eyes narrow. It wasn't in anger, but out of surprise and suspicion. "Unless...?"

It took a moment for him to register the suggestion. "What? No! Y-You...how can you think that about your own brother?" Sasuke took an instinctive step back as a hand held out towards him.

"Let me see."

"What, am I a camcorder? No."

Okay, now Itachi's eyes narrow in anger then it washed away as they settle on the chair.

Sasuke's eyes widen. He stood shock for a minute that his brother was even considering doing that, but after recovering, he immediately grab ahold of the chair and held it to him in loving protection. "No. Nii-san, I'm warning you."

"Hand over the chair, Sasuke."

"Make me," Sasuke retorted, knowing it was immature and useless. Itachi edge closer while Sasuke edge away with the chair in arm. If the chair wasn't so heavy, Sasuke might have made it to the door. He might not have made it out the _front_ door, but at least he could say he put a good fight.

Curse his unexpected, but inevitable plan. The minute Itachi touch the chair, yesterday's scenes flowed before his eyes and as he dig deeper, the image of a blonde boy appeared. Itachi stood still, with his arms across his chest as he analyzed the events of what happened. "You are fond of this boy."

"Fond is such a strong word. More like curious." Upon seeing the slightly raised eyebrow on Itachi's face, his lips tighten. "_Because_ he has great control over his mind. Did you not see that?"

Tapping a finger against his chin, Itachi re-considered silently. Sasuke tempted himself into looking in his brother's mind, but he quickly disconnect the line just as quickly as he connected it. Itachi's mind was...a dark place. While shaking away the disturbing mental images his brother played on him, he didn't see Itachi picking up the phone.

"Reschedule the Milam for this evening."

Sasuke certainly heard that. His happy moment was only short-lived.

"Get me everything on Uzumaki Naruto. And call Sai in here."

"Nii-san," he heaved the word heavily.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, trying hard not to bury himself in the backyard. It would be one way to rid himself of his brother's scheming mind. Itachi's amusement irritate him to no end. "I am not meeting him."

"He will be place as a possibility, but tonight, we will be focusing on the female option."

Sasuke has, again, a reputation and homosexuality is not part of his future plans. Not to mention, its a guy who can't make it past a B. Minus. "I don't want a _female_ as an option."

"Oh. So we're swinging the other way now."

Pivoting his feet to a right angle, Sasuke looked curtly at the wiggly-waggly designer, Sai. "I am not swinging the other way. I just don't want to get marry."

Itachi sigh, waving Sai away for a later time. "No one is asking you to get marry, but..." he cut off, waving his hand at the invisible remainder of the sentence tiredly.

"What? Say it. I'm going to end up like you? I'm going to die and wander the world for all eternity? That's going to happen no matter how many plans you come up with. I've come to live with that fact; why can't you?"

"Sasuke."

"I don't want to find a girl."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want her to end up like mom!" Sasuke snapped.

Itachi look away, his composure slipping. They may have had lots of talks, but matters concerning their parents was a different story. He took an unsteady and deep breath. "Go get change."

"Nii-san," Sasuke said apologetically.

"Now."

He let his hand drop then reluctantly left.

"He didn't mean it," said Neji, who came in seconds later.

"I know." Itachi briefly allowed himself to glance at the photo on his desk before disconnecting the memories. "Did you need something?"

"I think he might be after Sasuke," Neji said in a serious tone.

"You saw this?" Itachi's expression was unreadable, but its nothing new.

"I can't confirm if it is him nor if Sasuke is our ancestor's reincarnation," Neji answered, thinking back when Sasuke suddenly screamed. "Something tried to get inside him then it just stop as if it was afraid to hurt him. My guess is 'most likely'." He waited then with no reply from Itachi, he went on. "We've been considering the possibilities of others cursed like us, but its been hundred of years now. Even if you want to join forces and become the League of International Psychic, the chances of us winning against them are zero to none."

A moment of silence rang out before Itachi slowly asked, "League of International Psychic?"

Neji pondered this with a childlike seriousness. "Yes. I've thought of P.I. International, but the initials sounded a bit inappropriate. And the Psychic Avengers was too much of a carbon-copy so after much deliberation, I have decided on…"

Itachi quickly wipe the smile off his face and replaced it with a solemn look.

"Ani-sama?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No. I would never…pfft!"

"You are making fun of me," Neji almost yelled out in frustration. His hands were tied between elderly respect and just whacking his older cousin.

"I am sorry, little cousin, but it has been a long time since you were able to act like a child."

Neji watch the solemn expression turn real. He wish he had play along a little longer.

* * *

Neji continue flipping through the magazine, ignoring whatever complaint coming out of Sasuke's mouth. He became use to his cousin's violent nature about eleven years ago. Besides, by not talking he can concentrate on keeping Sasuke out of his head. You think having a psychic cousin would mean immunity, but they are all lies scientist come up with, and writers.

"This is stupid."

"You've said that a hundred times already." He felt Sasuke giving him a look, but again, ignoring is his best option.

"I've only said that _once_."

He pause in his flipping. "Really?"

Sasuke groan out his frustration. "Will you please stop unconsciously looking into my future? I don't go probing around _your_ frontal lobe."

That is through the pages, he idly thought of the curse. "Sasuke?"

"What?" he said curtly.

"Do you believe in true love?"

"Where did that came from?" He certainly never believed Neji was the sentimental type. It does add another layer of I'm-going-to-blackmail-you-later-with-this between them.

"I was just thinking about the curse and the evil wizard demon guy. You have to wonder, why true love?"

"Why not AIDS? Or some other incurable disease?" Sasuke said sarcastically, not understanding how this was so important.

"You're being ridiculous, Sasuke," Neji said incredulously. "AIDS wasn't recognized until the 1980s. What happened was centuries before that. But it is beside the point."

"Which I don't really understand, but go ahead."

Neji felt Sasuke was being very immature, but choose to put it aside to other important matters. "You said so yourself that the demon is evil, but what if it wasn't him that's evil?"

"Hello, curse to wonder the world for eternity? That is consider very very bad."

Neji slap down the magazine, irritated. "Our ancestor was the one who poisoned him. That is also consider very very bad. He loved our ancestor, but was betrayed, right? This curse could be his implement that true love doesn't exist and he wants us to believe that too; and we have. Why else haven't any one of us found true love?"

"His implement is very literal."

"Sasuke."

"Alright. I get your point. The demon is only a victim, which means..."

Neji did not like the glint in Sasuke's eyes nor the sharp turn of his mouth into a grin. Sasuke does not grin and to do so means something very very bad is about to be said and done.

"... we have to summon him."

His cousin has gone from "special" to insane. Neji pick up his magazine and opened it loudly. "We're psychic, not magical."

"Ah, details details," Sasuke said, waving it off as his mind is already filling itself with ideas. "He is the only one who can lift this curse and we're the only link to him. There has to be some way out of this," with that said, Sasuke went to the family library.

Several seconds later, there was a loud voice calling his name. Neji sigh and got up. "I just had to make a point."

* * *

"Hey, Naruto, wait up!"

Naruto continued walking, but he did turn around, once. "Hi, Kiba. You want to buy notes or get answers to next week's test?"

"There's a test next week?!" Kiba's mind zoomed a thousand miles a minute until he finally remembered why he called Naruto. "Nevermind that. I have something to ask you."

"Nevermind that? This must be really important." He stop at a locker and smoothly open the combination, waiting for Kiba's big question.

"How do you feel about a date?"

Naruto's hands stop mid-way in taking out a notebook. "Excuse me?"

"Not with me, with another guy."

"With another guy?" Naruto said slowly.

Kiba took a moment to think about that and realized how strange and gay that sounded. "A group date? With girls, of course."

"Meaning the gay guy will also be among them." Naruto slowly began shaking his head. He also knew the group date was a fib, but decided not to voice it. "That's a lot of witnesses."

"Remember that guy you talked to at my party last night? He's going to be there," Kiba said, hoping Naruto will just agree and he can get on with his life without threats from a horrible Uchiha, who can see into the past.

"He's the gay guy?"

"No," Kiba paused after saying that. _A guy and guy hooking up?_ "Yes. I mean, I don't know. He's still thinking about it. Look, he's Hinata's cousin and he just needs to loosen up. Ah, you know I'm not good with words."

"Let me get this straight, you want me to hook up with your fiance's cousin and show him a good time?"

"…yes?"

"Uh...no offense, but I don't have time to help a guy figure out his sexuality."

Kiba saw his life flashed before his eyes as Naruto walked away. He saw his dog, his cat, and goldfish waving him into heaven. Then a dark cloud erupted over head and the ground (or clouds, whatever the smoky substance holding him thousands of miles above solid ground) split open into a fiery flame of lost souls. He can not let this happen. Kiba thought and thought hard; there has to be something, some reason Naruto talked to Sasuke in the first place, an interest. _Aha! _"There's nobody interesting in this school and you're going to spend the rest of your school life selling test answers and notes without anything or anyone to talk to and this is your only chance out of boredom and you know it since I saw you approached him at the party and you haven't done that to anyone for months."

"Okay."

Kiba sigh with relief, not believing it actually worked. "By the way, why were you digging through that guy's locker?"

* * *

Sasuke slam closed yet another book while Neji finished reading another magazine. "Over five thousand books and not one summoning spell."

"What did you expect? You're looking through history books and literatures," Neji said smugly, earning him a glare.

"Well, you know what?" Sasuke pause for dramatic effect, as all great villains do. "Kiba's going for first base."

_Rip!_ The magazine in Neji's hands split right down the middle and revealed the dark shadow that is his face. Sasuke watched, fascinated, as Neji's pale eyes rippled and veins he didn't even know existed popped all over his temples. "You're lying."

"Am I? Let me think," continued Sasuke. "It seems he might use his _tongue_."

And Neji is gone!

The satisfaction lasted for about eight minutes. It was a good eight minutes. Then Sasuke realized he needed his cousin's all-seeing powers to find a summoning spell, but his ego kept him from running after the guy. Sasuke had a thought of going to his brother for help then squash knowing Itachi would never consider that option. That option was dangerous and could land them with another curse. However, first, this young Uchiha needed a plan. Even if he did open up the ground and summoned this evil, but sadly, a victim in the face of love, there was no way in convincing the demon to reverse the curse. That's why he need a plan and Sasuke is very good in coming up with plans.

Before he can, Itachi walked in and demanded he go to the supermarket.

"You want me to buy blueberries?"

"Yes," his brother responded simply and very casually.

"Even though we have a servant at your beck and call, you want _me_, your brother, to go out to a supermarket at this very specific address and time to buy blueberries?" Sasuke made sure to speak each word with heavy stress and with a deliberate slow pace.

"Yes," Itachi said again.

"Naruto's going to be there, isn't he?"

"That's about right."

"I'm not going," Sasuke crossed his arm and did not move a muscle to tell his brother how serious he is.

"I'm going to haunt you after I die."

Sasuke huffed, his determination not wavering an inch. His brother stared back, unblinking and matching Sasuke's posture. Clearly his throat, Sasuke grabbed his jacket. "I'll be back in thirty minutes."

* * *

Kiba wouldn't say he was scared. It was more of a petrified feeling. He had gone shopping at the market with Naruto and they were in the middle of picking out fruits. Kiba had decided on plums, but Naruto wanted pears. Hah, Naruto doesn't know anything about fruits. This is a season for plums, not pears. The blonde just had to argue and Kiba literally schooled him on the subject. Naruto was curious how he knew so much about fruits when he couldn't even identified which vegetable is which.

"You're not one to talk, ramen boy."

"Test tube baby," Naruto said cruelly.

"I thought it was my bottle!" Kiba bellowed then quiet down when he saw where they were. "You promised never to bring that up," he hissed.

"Ye-ah, I lied," Naruto confessed.

Then it happened. Kiba would've retorted if he hadn't felt _it_. "Naruto," he whispered, his eyes becoming alert. His shoulders stiffen and his hands tighten.

"Hmm?"

"I feel like someone's trying to kill me," he was ready to take on whoever it was.

"You mean that guy with the cheese cube?" Naruto pointed out then turned to a dotted figure that used to be Kiba. He found the boy crouched down on all four, shaking with an invisible curled up tail.

"Hello, Kita."

Lifting his head up slowly, Kiba saw the face of his doom. His doom did not look happy and if his doom did look happy, it still wouldn't be really good for him, would it? His leg shook as he stood, backing a few steps away. Sweats rolled off his body like a waterfall. "N-Ne-j-j-i? W-Wha-t-t-t b-b-brung...b-bring...!"

Naruto watch the exchange. This guy called Neji, boy, you can really feel the evil-ness vibrating off him. And dude, his veins are pumping blood like a race car. This is beyond anger. This is beyond hostility. This is...**The Grudge**. _Kiba was gonna go see that movie_," Naruto thought. _But Hinata doesn't like scary movie so why is he...oh. _Now Naruto remember Neji is Hinata's brother. Anyway, Kiba probably already knows what's going to happen in the Grudge since Neji is a perfect example. Literally. Neji's man-hair is defying gravity and floating like Medusa's demonic hair-snake (snair?).

"So you're going to see a movie, huh?"

Naruto's attention darted away from the two to the floor. There's like a shadow around them and it looks like Kiba's getting choked. Weird, eh?

"W-W-e-e...us! I mean, we weren't..." Kiba found it very difficult to talk to someone with psychic abilities. "We're watching a comedy, lots of people."

"How nice." Neji, incredibly enough, managed to make that sound like a threat. No, it _is _a threat.

Sasuke took his time walking through the door, picking up a basket, and slowly put in a bag of tea. If he was going to the market, might as well buy something he likes. He scoffed when remembering the blueberry trap. Like he was ever going to believe that. Being haunted by his brother wasn't a joy either. He still couldn't believe Itachi threatened him with his own death. As he was passing by an aisle, he heard the whimpering thoughts of a poor, poor boy. He followed the thoughts to the fruit section and lo and behold, there was Kiba and Neji and Naruto. His future-seeing cousin and blabber-mouth friend. Yeah, this should go well.

"Neji," he called, hoping he wasn't too late in saving Kiba. His joke did go a little far. "Kiba, Naruto."

The blonde raise an eyebrow in acknowledgement. Or something.

"Ah, Sasuke," Neji hissed. The cheesecube was eaten and if you listen closely, you can hear the crunching sound of toothpick. "Kiso here was just telling me about his plans for tonight."

Sasuke definitely went a little too far and Kiba's name changed again. The last time the three of them were together, Kiba was called Britney. Well, this time Neji remembered two of the letters. It's an improvement. "Plans, huh? Neji, they are engaged. Lighten up."

Neji's neck turned a full 180 and everyone is observing how the rest of him stood completely still. _Don't. You. Tell. Me. To. Lighten. Up. _

"Ahem," Sasuke coughed and looked away. Now he remember what hell looks like. "Um, Kiba, why don't you change your plans to a more crowded place."

_With. Lights._

"With lights. Lots and lots of bright lights."

Kiba nodded and scurried away. He used to be such a cheerful boy. Since he met the accursed family, he hasn't been the same. Wonder what changed him? Neji ignored everything and everyone and followed after Kiba; the shadow moved with him. Sasuke heard a distinct smirk, but figure he was hallucinating since Naruto's weird inner thoughts were screwing with him. On that thought, he scowled at Naruto, who looked confused at the sudden change of mood towards him.

Our mostly innocent blonde, in this specific moment, averted his eyes and finished wrapping up his plums. Moving on, Sasuke realized he was scowling and stopped immediately, turning the stage into a silent fruity-. Sasuke attempted a smile before leaving, but it turned out crook and devious. The good thing is it made Naruto laugh heartedly, kind of insulting though. For once Sasuke ignored his ego and went along with it.

_Nice laugh._

Sasuke glowed like a firefly on a warm summer evening. "Sorry about earlier."

"No worries. It happens all the time," Naruto smiled.

"I better get going." He stop when Naruto's smile grew bigger. The curiosity from last night returned tenth fold and he couldn't resist asking, "What?"

"Its funny how you know my name," he said, tilting his head to the side in light flirting.

"Kiba told me," retorted Sasuke, immediately suspecting what Naruto was trying to say.

"Which mean you had to ask him first," Naruto responded cleverly.

Seeing he was expected to answer, pride fill up to his eyes so it was all he can see. "Well, I wanted to know the name of the guy who dared lay his filthy lips on me." The menacing sentence actually sounded very convincing. Ha, Naruto's foot twitch; he's thinking of running...or kicking him. You know, either one.

Naruto narrow his eyes slyly and took several daring steps forward till they were chest to chest. Then he said, "What made you think it was my lips?"

That caught Sasuke off guard and he can only think how contradicting the situation is to Naruto's hair. He regained however much composure he had left and distance himself. After opening up his throat, he successfully warned Naruto with a rather pathetic and lame excuse before walking away while gathering the remains of his dignity.

Rushing off, he didn't noticed Neji and Kiba hiding behind a corner around the block.

"Ani-sama would want to hear about this."

"Right."

Neji felt the annoying presence still beside him and turned to give it a good mean look. The presence itself muttered an 'oh' before hastening away. He caught it by the cuff and tried very hard not to swat it. A challenge it is. "I'm going to tell him. You go and prepare for your date with Hinata," he said still not letting go. "And if I "see" any touching..."

"You'll castrate me before doing other equally horrible things."

_Castrate? Yeah, that'll do._ Neji let go of the cuff. "You may leave."

* * *

It is evening and Sasuke is moody. Sasuke spend hours almost every week for the past years in a dark little restaurant trying to find true love in many of the pestering girls who wouldn't stop talking and thinking about him. And you know what? He gets to do them all over again tomorrow evening until the day he dies with lots and lots of more girl. But his brother is being nice this time...

"Milam _day_ restaurant."

...in the wrong area.

"Its bright," observed Itachi.

Sasuke avoid looking at the ceiling; it looks like the gateway to heaven. If he looks up, he doubt his eyeballs will not melt. The worst part about this is Itachi actually thought it was a good idea. What part of this is good? Everyone, down to the chef in the kitchen, is wearing thick Men In Black sunglasses and getting tanned under the roof. Sasuke's skin is pale. P-A-L-E. A color not too friendly with the sun. But no, any argument is meaningless and will be commented by Uchiha Itachi with a 'you're being ridiculous'. Does he not see everyone turning a shade darker than when they came in? Feeling like this is the worst of his life, Sasuke pull on his tie, failing miserably to try and untie it. When Sai said he could do a knot, he can do a knot. He kick the chair across from him because kicking the table would've spilled their cup of ice water and he'll need something to crunch on if he's going to sit here listening to girls who can't form more than five syllables in a sentence. Oh yeah, great conversationalist. If he was going to have a true love, can't they be at least be witty? He's not even asking for a high I.Q., although it will be nice. And he still can't forgive his brother for stopping him from summoning the demon. "I was in the middle of calling upon the demon."

"You were about to kill a rabbit on our coffee table." And Itachi will never forget it. His little brother, butcher knife in hand and a rabbit in the other. It had been disturbing beyond anything he has ever seen. To think the rabbit was _this_ close to being severed if he hadn't noticed how weird it was that a giant marshmallow was thrashing.

"It's called a summoning spell," Sasuke defended.

"It is also called a sacrificial ritual, something that is frown upon by many historians, environmentalists, and people who love rabbit."

He gaped. "Did you just make a joke?"

"I thought it would lighten the mood." Actually he was trying to change the subject since after letting the rabbit go, it came back in his hound dog's mouth.

"Lighten the...?!" Sasuke took the cup and crunch on his ice. He bite it once and the whole thing melted. _Stupid ice._ Yeah, its the ice's fault that Sasuke's mouth is an open portal of lava due to the extreme anger overheating in his head. "These girls are only with half a brain and you're here making jokes?"

"Sasuke, they are not that bad," Itachi found it hard to believe his own words. There had been a time when he was in Sasuke's seat, trying not to pout and kick the table.

"Aren't that bad? They wouldn't know what ceramic is even if it hit them in the face." Sasuke grunted. These things should be illegal. The fact of him being under age alone should give him the right to object to this mistreatment. He glance at his brother when he heard a scoff of some sort. "What?"

"You just made a joke too." He didn't think it was a good one, however.

Sasuke was about to blow. His sanity is hanging by a pair of tong over a beaker of highly unstable chemicals.

"Would you like to order right now?"

Someone just blew up his sanity to kingdom come. Sasuke lifted his eyes into a pair of gleaming blue ones. He hate those blue eyes and will never forgive them for coincidentally appearing here. He now even hates the color blue.

"Oh, hi Sasuke."

"Uzumaki-san," Sasuke said politely.

* * *

Thank you, NekoKriszty-_sensei_.

She talked about the difference of brunette and brunet, blonde and blond. Funny thing too because I actually did look up hair color, but totally forgot about those forms. I'll correct them. But seriously, no one has ever said that in their review before. I find it refreshing: an educated, yoai, fangirl.

And then there are the tenses. I am like a blind child trying to read words when it comes to tenses. My language has no tenses, at all. It was so confusing growing up as a child. I could spend hours on one sentence trying to figure out the right tenses to put in. It could become a discussion. I confuse even the people who are well verse in tenses.

Then my texting-text problem. I'm so lazy I shorten everything I can into texting-style. So it's, like, totally, like OMG.

There are some others questions and this chapter doesn't explain it. It was in chapter one, but perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

1) Why did Sasuke faint then slept till morning?

A: He fainted because he used too much of his power.

**Flashback:** _"I used too much power," he said._

Fainting turned to sleeping up to morning.

2) How come they knew he fainted and wasn't sleeping?

Well, he was standing…then he fell. I thought it was obvious he fainted. And Hinata was there too so she saw him faint. She called Neji because someone (Kiba) was busy getting wasted. I probably should've put her in. Wow, I haven't noticed before, but beside from my Inuyasha stories, female characters don't get that many screen time. They're like those ominous creatures in the back.

Of course, we come to the "spit balling" point. Someone suggested that Naruto is related, or is, to the wizard demon guy who cursed the Uchiha and Hyuuga family. I like to say no, he is not.

HA-HA! In your face! I planned this too, because I knew someone was going to try and connect that. But seriously, Naruto is not the one who cursed them or anything of the sort. He isn't related to the demon either. This isn't some trick to fool you. Witches' honor.


	3. Chapter 3

Someone told me this once to add a small description to every story that I start so that when a reader jumps into it, they'll know it isn't base on the Naruto-verse. This is a modern Naruto story. Uh, it has nothing to do with the ninja world, although one of the characters might feel the need to act like a ninja.

Two people has expressed surprise that Sasuke and Kiba are best friends. Honestly, I think if Sasuke's family wasn't murdered by his twisted, yet ironically kind, brother, they would've been best friends.

**Narra:** Yes, and together, they would mock Naruto. Hah, wouldn't it be funny? Kiba would've been in team seven and Sakura would be with Hinata's group. On second though, that's way too many guys in one team.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

There is no need to fight. Even if they are being baked alive. Sasuke breath, taking in positive thoughts and calming effective, whatever it is that yoga people do. They have been here for about an hour after Naruto took their orders and winked at him. If that wasn't enough, the heat. You know, Sasuke doesn't do so well in the heat. He's turning visibly red and oh, it's freaking hot! His date (wife-to-be number 335) is late because where she lives, there aren't any cars. True and not some make-up story that the people at the dating service told them because he made all 334 wife-to-be cried and disturbed them forever with his keen intuition and creepy, but accurate guesses about their thoughts. He also has a really mean face. Though devilishly beautiful, still mean.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, wincing silently inside. He grinned at Naruto's conveniently innocent face and turn to his brother. "That is the eleventh time he's stepped on my foot. If he does it one more time..."

"We would had left much sooner if you had not scared off the entire dating company, who "forgot" to inform us they were shutting down their services. I understand their feelings," at the word feelings, Itachi glance at Sasuke. "That does not, however, keep me from destroying them in the future."

"We've been here for over an hour, haven't ordered anything because you're cruel, it is hot and you're starting to smell buttery and delicious; why?"

Itachi made a subtle move to sniff himself. "I burned myself on the stove and Mata said butter would help."

"You're cooking yourself, Nii-san. And to think you were complaining about my rabbit problem."

"The kid is right," said Naruto, sitting down despite Sasuke's protest. "You know what would really help when you burn yourself? Water." He dip a napkin in cold water and in one scrub, wiped the butter off Itachi's hand. "Its this weird form of matter created to treat wounds and such. And you..." he said towards Sasuke, suddenly smiling. "You have a rabbit problem? I didn't know about that."

Sasuke smile back, civil and polite. "Well, Uzumaki-san..."

"Ah. And to think this afternoon it was Naruto."

Sasuke kept eye contact with Naruto; his smile not wavering. Looking at his brother right now would only earn an amused smirk. "_Uzumaki-san_, should you not be working right now?"

That.

Was.

Weak.

Naruto rub his bottom lip against his teeth and managed a soft smile. Also keeping eye contact on Sasuke's face, he brought up his jug filled hand and re-filled Sasuke's glass of water. He kept pouring until he felt certain there was more water on the table than in the cup. "Oh, my bad. I spilled. Let me clean that up," he said, putting the jug down and pulling out a towel, still not breaking eye contact with Sasuke. The way Naruto was bent over is a masculine form of the 'bend-and-snap'. For those who do not know what it is, oh well… His hand lazily wiped the table. Luckily the table was tilted just a few inches to the left so any escaping water fell right onto the floor without wetting either of them. "From your skin color, I wouldn't say you come here a lot. It is pretty hot."

"Then why are you here?" _Die, die, die._ If his eyes were lasers, Naruto would be cooking.

"It beats wasting money going to a beach or the tanning salon," he said, showing his arm.

Sasuke glared at the damn thing. With this much temperature, it should burst into flame, but it didn't so Sasuke just glared. And no, he isn't admiring it and hasn't been for the past hour. Its...these waiter clothes are way too revealing. Naruto's practically in an apron and pants. As is everyone. Except the girls. You know, they have the chest area going on and everything.

"Anyway, there's a party tomorrow evening at this place," he pass over a black piece of paper. "Hope you can make it."

Sasuke smirked (its a familiar trait) and crossed his arms. "What makes you think I'll come?"

"Because you'll need to get me back."

"For wha-?"

Splash. Yes, splash. Its the moment where exclamation marks end at every sentence. Naruto took the cup of water and threw it into Sasuke's face. Third degree burn (not exactly, but still pretty bad) and cold water, not a fun mix. So after Sasuke screamed bloody murder and chased Naruto out of the restaurant, Naruto vanishes. Well, he took a right at this corner and hid behind a dumpster, but nobody needs to know that. Sasuke decided he is definitely coming to the party because he has no idea where Naruto lives and Kiba is nowhere to be found. No, not good enough reasons. Sasuke can find Kiba and force him to spill everything, but this tiny part of Sasuke's brain (awfully tiny) tells him no, repeatedly. It saids no, you need to go to that party. When you get there, you can kick his ass and you did it without your powers. That will mean you actually beat him and you will feel the victory and all this other crap. But, sheesh. What Sasuke doesn't know is that this tiny part of his brain is actually smitten by Naruto. This tiny part of his brain is planning a coup de tat, not to overthrow him, but turn all the other lobes to the dark side, to the gay side. But alas, having lived for seventeen years in the corner of Sasuke's brain, it knows Sasuke has no fashion sense. Or does, but it really wouldn't fit in with the crowd Naruto is hanging with. The neat clothing, iron shirt and clean shoes; it would totally compromise his image.

Its next plan is to corrupt his wardrobe and then take over the -.

"Hello?" Sasuke answered, wondering why his brother would be calling him.

"You ever wonder how we came in the same car, but only one of us is leaving in it?"

_Oh shit._

Kiba was enjoying his movie. Was. Was! He doesn't know whether to be pissed off or run for his life. Its...migraine. Whenever his brain moves too fast for him to think, it develops into migraine. After being threatened, he bought two tickets to a romance/comedy movie. Hinata is enjoying it. Because she doesn't realize the evil entity behind them. Oh, but Kiba can and through the dark, he can (if he glance back) see the red glowing eyes. Innocent bystanders can't seem to understand why this romance/comedy is so freaking scary.

"Excuse me. Pardon me. Do you want to lose that foot? Move it. Oh, hi." Naruto sat down next to Kiba with a bucket of popcorn and a coke, waving to Hinata who shyly waves back.

"Why are you so tan?" asked Kiba. The boy has really good night vision.

"I went to Milam and pretended to be a waiter," he said, ignoring the many sheesh coming his way.

"Why were you pretending to be a waiter?" whispered Kiba.

"I saw that guy you mentioned. Sasuke. And his brother."

Kiba thought logically about this (ow, migraine). "Why were they in Milam? Aren't they, like, really pale?"

"I know. It was really - lady, you 'sheesh' me one more time and you won't see the end of this movie." Naruto mutter something about rude people and began eating his popcorn. He looked up when he felt this weird presence and glance back. He glance back three times before confirming that whoever was behind them was technically still alive. "Kiba, why is that guy glaring at you?"

"N-N-Ne-j-ji," Kiba stuttered as quietly as possible.

Naruto nodded. He doesn't really know the guy (Neji) well enough to judge him on his possessive nature. The blonde was introduced to him once at a keg party. They said awkward hellos and parted ways. He didn't see him again until Kiba's party and that was only by chance. Naruto had thought the party would be just another place where Kiba gets smash, again, when he sees Sasuke. Neji was this nonexistent figure beside him until Naruto saw him go...blank. He was staring into nothing with his awe look on his face. At first, the conclusion had been somebody spiked his drink, but then Neji walked away completely fine. Naruto's curiosity told him to get Neji to do that again and figure out why he does it. Oh and there is Sasuke. "I invited Sasuke to that party tomorrow night."

"WHAT?!"

And they were instantly kicked out. Having lost reason to do anything else entertaining, they went to eat. By the time they were walking, Neji had already left them. Even so, Kiba was paranoid and he is convinced that Neji is everywhere. But Neji's disappearance wasn't because he trusted Kiba, rather Naruto is their land lord and will inevitable kill any mood Kiba is trying to start.

Why does being their land lord have to do with anything?

Naruto is not really a light-sleeper, but he will wake if anyone so much as open his door. So for Kiba to start anything, it might lead to something and this something will cause a lot of noise. And lets not forget that they live right next to each other. Naruto has kicked people out for less than that. Usually couples live all the way at the very top or all the way at the very bottom, but unfortunately there were no other rooms available and Hinata's cooking is very wow. Oh yeah, also something about the cheap rent and friendship.

He hung up the phone and sigh. Tomorrow night was his turn for matchmaking. It hadn't been a good day for him, or lately. How can you be happy when everyone's going to hell? There are his two cousins and himself included. It counts as "everyone". He sigh again, deciding to stop at the book store. So he was really into the book when he heard a laugh, more like a snicker. He ignored it. He's going to be the bigger person here.

"You like comic books?"

Neji, yes this is Neji, turned his eyeball real slow to give off a look. He mentally ripped his own eyes out. Before him is Gaara, a red-hair boy who isn't afraid to take a knife to his own face (evidence: the big fat LOVE word carved into his forehead). Gaara is this person he sees in _e-v-ery_ single class, behind _e-v-ery_ window, leaning against _e-v-ery_ wall and now he's dominated the book store. Neji has registered for a restraining order about a year ago because he had this naive thought that when the cops take one look at Gaara, they'll accept he's a mass murderer. It worked.

And now the cops are too afraid to do anything. There is no justice.

With Gaara, Neji threw out all morality; fuck the bigger person. He gave up the thought of Gaara simply ignoring him as he did everybody else about a year ago. His dream was crushed when Gaara talked to him. Then what was left of his hope was smothered when Gaara began...it can't be call flirting. Sasuke can flirt way better than Gaara and that is saying something. Neji walked to the counter while casually giving Gaara the cold shoulder. He was going to pay for the book and just leave, but that's right, he forgot his wallet. It was one of the things Neji never did and he went and done it. He felt like an idiot standing there while Gaara stared at him from behind.

"Are you going to pay or not?"

Neji gave the register boy the death glare. Its one of the things he's good at. Ah, so he left without the book and it put him in an even sour mood than before.

When morning came and Itachi was inching closer and closer to death, Sasuke was up to here with summoning spells. It seems he's learning the difference between magic and ESP. You would think these powers would be more useful since they came from a demon. Whatever happened to crossing dimensions, turning back time? All that cool stuff on TV? Sasuke flop ungracefully onto the couch. He decided to rest and closed his eyes. One thing lead to another and he was thinking of…

"Naruto," yelled Kiba from the living room. "Can you hurry up? We're going to be late!"

"It's a party where people get drunk and throw up. Time is not an issue here. And why are you yelling? We're three feet away from each other." Blonde hair poke out from the doorway then the whole body appear. "Hinata's not coming?"

"Hello, it's a party where people get drunk. Besides, she has an exam tomorrow so she wants to sleep early."

Naruto put on his shoes while watching Kiba from out of the corner of his eyes. Hinata was lying. The blonde shrug it off. He hates getting between a couple's quarrel. "Alright, let's go."

"Sasuke. Wake up." _Really now._ "Fire! The house is burning!"

He sat up in alarmed. "What? What's going on?"

"In case of a real fire, you would've burned because you're so busy not moving" said Neji, bitterly. He still hadn't gotten over the comic book incident. "Why are you sleeping here?"

"What are you talking about? Its night, isn't-. Its night?!" Sasuke jump out of the couch and ran around looking for his jacket. "I'm late."

"Going somewhere?"

"Huh? Yeah, to a party. I'll be home at…eleven."

"It's eleven."

"Twelve then," Sasuke said and shoved necessary things into his pocket. He did a quick check to see if he's missing anything. "Later."

"Oh. I'll just…sit here. You know, nothing to do."

Sasuke's hand twitch. "You want to come?"

"Since you asked…"

* * *

I've thought about letting Naruto be the only one Sasuke can't read, but yes, cliche. And then Twilight. Only if Sasuke was a vampire, which he's not. He has the emotions, very dark and depressing, but overall, he's not one of the gorgeous undead. So I left it as a struggle. Naruto hides his thoughts from Sasuke and Sasuke tries to read him.

And the gorgeous undead part. Every vampire, except the ones in Cirque de Freak, are extremely beautiful. I think being dead, they would kind of stink because their body is a a state of decomposition. Or it has halted at decomposition, but still pretty decompose. Know what I mean? Then in Twilight, Bella gets impregnanted by Edward. Anyone ever thought how long that sperm has been in there? I would imagine a vaginal infection, not a conception. I think Bella should have said, "Can you put on a condom so when you come, you can throw away your infectious sperm? I want you to take my virginity, not infect me with 80-year-old bacteria."

**Narra:** They're the undead. When you can explain how they're walking while, technically, being dead, then we'll talk about quarantining their private areas.

…a rare form of rigor mortis? Like, it's so rare it should be extinct?


	4. Chapter 4

When I hear the term undead, it would mean the person is dead, but he's still functioning like a living person. Lunacom said vampires have a slower heartbeat. I thought being vampires they didn't have a heartbeat. The heart is dead, right? Ah, whatever. Anything that can't be explain with vampires, we'll just say it's magic. How 'bout that?

And was chapter 3 hard to read? It made sense to me, but perhaps I'm bias because I'm the author.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

The two psychics briefly wonder if the barn's structure was strong enough to withstand the loud music pumping through the very foundation of it. Lights of every colors blasted from any small openings making you wonder exactly how bad it is. No wonder the party is in the middle of nowhere. The trees certainly conceal the UFO-like image.

"Oh mother of chocolate, it's a rave." Sasuke should learn to read hand-outs more carefully. He weighted the option of getting back at Naruto and actually walking into that place. It feels as if his eardrums might be ripped clean out simply by opening the door.

"Are we really going to go in there?" asked Neji.

"What are you, a scaredy cat?"

"I imagine coming out positive with something."

"Just don't touch anyone," said Sasuke as he opened the door to a view of over fifty people jam packed together. If you turn your head a certain angle, they look like they're humping each other. "Uh…stay close."

Neji, who had been following behind Sasuke, stopped as a drunker swagger between himself and Sasuke. The drunk's throat constricted. Neji felt it wasn't going to be pleasant if he had to risk being in the crossfire of this man and his stomach waste. He didn't want to leave the safety of the wall and cross the horizon of drunk, horny teenagers either. The only option is for him to go back to his cousin's bulletproof car. Neji turned around and stopped short at Gaara's obsessive eyes. Well, Neji admit he had not seen that one coming.

When Sasuke reached a table and offered to buy his cousin dinner later, he was surprised to find Neji missing. _Oh this isn't good_, he thought. His inner minds wager what to do when one loses a cousin in the middle of a rave. Too much thoughts went around for him to differentiate that one specific thought that is his cousin. If he had been more observant on his surroundings, he would've noticed Naruto's body tumbling towards him.

Naruto cursed whoever it was and look back to see a glare aimed at him. "Not liking the music?" he asked, grinning his best.

Sasuke briefly glance at the arm laid above his head, as if the close proximity of their body wasn't an indication of what is going to happen if it remained. The arm was taken away and Sasuke had more room in front of him. He noticed the look of disappointment on Naruto, but ignored it. "Have you seen Neji?"

The grin returned to his face. "No, but don't worry. It's a perfectly safe place."

As soon as he said that, somebody uppercut a guy through a table. Sasuke arch an eyebrow at the display.

Naruto shrug sheepishly. "To a certain degree. So do you want to get a drink? I can guarantee there's nothing in it," he added after the doubtful look on Sasuke's face.

"I have to look for my cousin," said Sasuke.

"One drink. That's all I'm asking. You can chug it and go look for him in this…," Naruto stared questioningly at the jamming crowd. "…mosh pit."

There's a nagging voice inside Sasuke telling him to continue looking for Neji. The nagging voice was really in fact Neji's voice asking for Sasuke's help, but Sasuke's head was too full of possibilities of how one drink can do all wrong for him and of the many wonders why that one drink was going down his pipe hole anyway. So while Naruto tried to chat up Sasuke and with the boy pretending not to hear him, Neji is in a situation equivalent to deep shit.

* * *

Neji's eyes shifted left and right, hoping to make eye contact with some fool and reel him in as a human shield against Gaara, who had an expression between confused and frustrated. Of course confused and frustrated on Gaara's face looked murderous and 'Oh crap, this guy is going to rise Lucifer and screw us over.'

"I…didn't know you go to these kind of things."

Neji squinted his eyes and lean forward just a bit. Yup, as he deducted, not a word. The best Neji could do was gesture wildly that the music was too loud and yeah, too bad, but I have to go. It grew worse as Gaara led him outside. Right where no living soul is at, next to the creepy dark forest. Neji's imagination deducted many dozens of ways this could go south. He had wanted to stop Gaara from pulling him outside, but like everyone else, he was scared shit-less of that weird, yet awfully familiar object outlining Gaara's black jacket. Is it a coincident that the word 'GANGSTER' is printed on the back? Not likely.

"I said…I didn't know," Gaara forced each word out as if it was a fish bone. "…you go to these kind of things."

"Oh." After an awkward silence, Neji finally said, "Alright then." He took a few steps back before walking away.

"Wait," whispered Gaara.

Neji heard him, but it wasn't the pleading tone nor the desperate look on Gaara's face that made him stop. No it would've been too easy for Gaara. It was actually an awesome vision of Sasuke getting totally wasted and etc. Yes, sir, Neji busted in there and ran right to Sasuke, barely taking his second drink and whispered into his ear, which is ironic, considering the music.

"What?" Sasuke shouted.

Neji frowned adorably and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I SAID YOU'RE GOING TO GET _*BEEP*_ AND _*BEEP*_ IF YOU DRINK THAT WHISKEY!"

Sasuke heard him, so did Naruto and fifty other something teenagers in the barn for someone cut the music right at the moment to announce police were on their way here. You can imagine the whispers and the lustful drunk stares. But the sirens came and everyone ran with a fire under their butt.

"I am going to kill that idiot," Sasuke gritted his teeth tightly and drove at full speed away from the crime scene. If he got caught there went his reputation and future college life, every scholarships down the drain. He wouldn't find a respectable job and oh lord, he sees the red light of prostitution somewhere in the future. Sasuke's paranoia stem from a life long habit of overworking.

"Who's the idiot?"

_SCCCCREEEECH!_ The car skid sharply off the road and stopped with a heavy thrust. Smokes came from the burning tires and dark lines were imprinted quite visibly on the road.

"W-Wha-! Naruto?! Where's Neji?!"

The blonde look at the back seat. "It might've been during the commotion when you reached for Neji, but grabbed me instead. But I did see him standing next to a red-headed kid with this bewildered look on his face." Naruto was on the verge of laughing, but decided against it . From the look on Sasuke's face, he wasn't enjoying this one bit. "You want to go back for him?"

"He's probably with the cop already." Sasuke hit himself with the wheel and groan irritably. "What will nii-sama say?"

Naruto was about to answer that when the phone ring. Good thing too because whatever was coming out of Naruto's mouth would end with him getting strangle.

"Neji? Oh thank God! Are you alright?" Sasuke relaxed a little then his face twisted into a frown. "But you're fine. It can't be that bad, right?" The phone abruptly ended

"What's wrong?" asked Naruto. Honestly, he was concerned.

"Everything. Now get out of my car."

He pretended to be shock by this predicament. "You're kicking me out? On this deserted road?"

Sasuke leaned over and opened the door. "Don't worry. The cops will be here to pick you up in a few minutes."

Our young hero sure was feeling smug. That ended when Naruto closed the door and promptly refused to leave.

"This is purely a battle of will, Uchiha. I've been caught by the police so many times, I have my own cell. What to do? And let's not forget about your brother? What will he say?" Naruto said, crushing Sasuke's small victory.

Sasuke had hoped to drive off like in the movies, leaving his enemy to rot in the smokes of his engine. He hadn't thought thoroughly enough, especially the part where the protagonist punches the villain out of the car first. Sasuke has never hit anyone before. Truth be told, he's avoided any event that might end with conflict. _Wow_, he thought. _I've never got in a fight before._ _How pathetic is that for a guy._

Naruto, on the other hand, was beginning to worry that Sasuke might be different from "pursuits" he had in the past. The moment he was building up to where Sasuke was suppose to punch him, Naruto would catch his hand and use the physcial contact to his advantage, however his victim is now engrossed in his own thought. _Cute._ Naruto approved of the thought. There is something off with Sasuke that Naruto hadn't been able to confirm yet. All of the looks he's been given seem almost to see right through him. It wasn't any humanly thing which Naruto felt before, but Sasuke hadn't done anything harmful so he continues in his pursuit. This certainly was different from his past lovers.

"Still, you better get out."

And certainly more stubborn. "Why? There's nothing wrong with me, is there?"

Sasuke shot him an accusatory glare. "The whiskey…did you tell the guy to put something in it?"

"**No**."

He unconsciously back up. Naruto's anger is worse than his. Sasuke skim the blond's mind. It is genuine anger for his sake. "Even if you didn't know, what if something happened?" Sasuke said, trying to be anger and falling quite a level.

Naruto thought about it and grinned. "Don't worry, I would've protected your virginity!"

Truthfully, Sasuke's fist was to hide his abashment.

* * *

Neji avoided direct eye contact with the driver. He quickly dialed the number, cursing the receiver of the call. "Hey," he controlled the growl that wanted to burst out from him along with the many curses he learned on TV.

"_Neji? Oh thank God! Are you alright?"_

"Yes, I am, but I have to ask, **dear cousin**, how you could have forgotten all about me?"

"_But you're fine. It can't be that bad, right?"_

_Fine? I am not fine! You try sitting in the car with someone who looks like a serial killer._ But Neji didn't say what he thought. He thought what he thought and cursed that Sasuke was within 20 miles to hear all of it. "I'll see you at home," he turned off the phone and shoved it into his pocket. Neji silently look into his own future to see any sign of rape or a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

"Are you…hungry?"

"No, I am not hungry. I would like to go home." _Pretty please_. Gaara genuinely was concern if Neji was hungry or not, but not knowing why, Neji assumed the worst. It isn't that he is normally judgmental towards other people, but with Gaara, he feels very judgmental.

"You don't have to worry."

Neji pause on the sentence. The way it was said sounded like he should feel guilty about something. It was too weird to comment on. They drove in silence for most of the way until it got hot. He bit his tongue and thought of something else to endure this long ride. He didn't want to bother Gaara by asking about the AC since he seem fine.

But without asking, Gaara turned on the AC anyway. Neji smile a bit for Gaara's thoughtfulness and enjoyed the cool air. Two to five minutes passed and Neji noticed the way Gaara kept blowing on his hand. He wasn't sure so he watched carefully until Gaara noticed him.

"Is anything wrong?" Gaara asked, glaring.

Neji laughed and turned off the AC. Gaara wasn't glaring. He was only trying really hard not to let it be known that he was cold. He shed a few layers of clothes and noticed the fervent glances. "You're awfully shy, aren't you?"

He laughed more when Gaara stiffen fom embarrassment. And quite naturally, he began to relax.

* * *

In front of his brother in the middle of their living room was when Sasuke remembered about Neji. Worse, he forgotten Itachi had changed his work schedule and "invited" Naruto inside for a drink. But he can fix this. As long as Itachi doesn't ask-.

"Where's Neji?"

-that. An Uchiha doesn't fidget, but if one did, it would look like what Sasuke's doing now. Thank the Gods that Neji walked through the door right then and there. Itachi relaxed a bit at the sight of his little cousin, gave his brother the eye and was slightly startled by the appearance of a sudden murderous aura. He move his head to the side and saw red hair poking out from behind the door.

"Neji," inquired Itachi.

"This is Gaara-san." At the sound of his name, Gaara appear and gave a curt nod to everyone. "He gave me a ride after someone left me at the party."

Sasuke refused to look at Neji and ignored every thought his cousin was sending him.

"It is very nice to meet you, Gaara-san," Itachi said and reached out his hand. He smile brightly at Gaara's reluctance, but kept his hand out until Gaara shook it. "I thank you for driving my little cousin home."

Neji muttered under his breath about not being little.

Itachi didn't appear to hear him. His attention was focused on Gaara, whose hand he still hold.

"Can I have my hand back?" Gaara asked after a moment of silence.

"Of course. How rude of me. Would you like to stay for a drink?"

Gaara hesitated over the question, but declined in the end. However, he still left with a worrisome expression.

"Very interesting."

Neji jump at the sudden hand on his shoulder and immediately flap it away. "Ani-sama!" shouted Neji; his face blushed from whatever information his older cousin seem to have found.

"Ma, ma, no need to be so violent. It is alright, isn't it? Being _that_ way." Itachi covered his sly smirk with a hand and fluttered around Neji like a bad spirit. "We still have Hinata, do we not? But how sad it is for all of this family's men."

Neji brush past his cousin towards the backdoor, but paused midway to scowl. He slammed the door for good measures and stomped out to the yard.

"Perhaps I overdid it a bit?"

"You think?"

Itachi glance at his brother and the other one. He had forgotten they were there. He slip back on his social mask and grinned. "Ah, I think I promise you a drink, Uzumaki-san. Please follow this way."

Naruto got up to follow them, but he pulled Sasuke back a little. "Hey, what's up with your brother and the creepy smile?" he whispered.

Sasuke shrugged. He preferred to let those kind of things remain a mystery.

* * *

Ok, there is a lot of questions from a particular reviewer. Let's start.

1) This quote is from chapter 1. ""Neji must have seen danger. Why else would he be angry ?"

A: The 'he' in this sentence is Sasuke, not Neji. Sasuke did not want to admit any further that he found Naruto attractive so he told himself that Naruto was a threat.

2) What does P.I. International stand for?

A: Psychic something International. I forgot what the middle 'I' was for.

3) Why do you say that a psychic cousin would mean immunity, but they're all lies scientists came up with? And writers?

A: Well, being blood related would mean they are immune to each others powers, but this doesn't happen with Neji and Sasuke. They are able to use their powers on each other. About the whole scientists and writers part; writers mostly write how blood relations create immunity to their families psychic powers. Some of them do, anyway. And I think it if a scientist was to write an article about psychics, they would think so too.

4) When Neji said "why any one of us didn't find true love", which "us" is it?

A: The 'us' is every male member of their family. None of them have been able to find true love.

5) Is that Sasuke that calls Neji with a loud voice when Neji replies "I just had to make a point"?

A: Yes.

6)What is Naruto doing by digging in "that" guy's locker ? (and who is "that" guy?)

A: It's just a random guy. I put that there for humor. That guy is not important.

7) To go for first base, does this mean to want to go sleep with the other  
after a date ?

A: Uh…no. It just means kissing. This is simply to show how protective Neji is of Hinata. Did I say Neji is her brother or cousin? I can't remember. I'll probably just make them brothers and sister.s

8) Why is Naruto calling Kiba a test tube baby?

A: Kiba's mom took him to this amusement park and coincidentally, they had this humongous baby bottle as a decoration. Kiba managed to get into it, God only knows how, and he couldn't get back out.

9) Why is Itachi being nice when he says milam day restaurant, and why is he nice in the wrong area ?

A: Itachi thought he change the usual place where they meet Sasuke's prospective wives. They frequently go to Milam Night Restaurant and he changed it to Milam Day Restaurant.

10) What's about the giant marshmallow when Itachi noticed it, thus saving the rabbit? I didn't understand that part at all, except that Itachi saved the rabbit from his brother's hands.

A: Itachi thought the rabbit was a giant marshmallow. He didn't know it was an actual rabbit until it was moving.

11) You say coup d'Etat (There is an accent on the E (which is é), but I can't seem to be able to put one here), not coup de tat. It is a French expression.

A: Yeah, I typed it in and the computer keeps saying it was wrong and I wasn't sure whether to just change it or leave it as is.

12) What does that mean, Hinata's cooking is very "wow"?

A: Oh, it just meant her cooking is great. It is so unbelievably good that is just 'wow'.


	5. Chapter 5

So, what should I say?

Oh, okay. I have never talked about discrimination against people's sexuality before in my stories. All my characters relationship had been going pretty smoothly, except for some lies and issues. In this chapter, I wanted to try something new. For those who have read all of my Naruto fanfic, you will instantly know what that new thing is. It makes up the central conflict of this chapter. I don't want to say anything here, in case I ruin it.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Sasuke found last night's conversation strangely enjoyable. After Neji had finish with his tantrum, they all sat down to some snacks and talk about trivial matters. At one point, Sasuke teased Naruto about the blond's less than desirable intellect, only to have been rebuffed by Naruto's reassurance that he'll pass _college_. Sasuke had expected Naruto to still be in high school and his lack of knowing so caused him a bit of an embarrassment.

He took off his shirt and cast it aside among the other piles of "unsuitable". Sasuke gave his closet a long look. Honestly, why did he have so many blacks? Black pants, black shirts. The whites contrasted with the blacks, but it only made his obsession with blacks all the more obvious. After the last shirt was discarded, Sasuke finally gave up and decided that he, in fact, has no fashion sense.

Glancing up, Sasuke saw his hope. He examined the piece a little more closely to make sure it wasn't an illusion. He brought the shirt over to the light and _almost_ whooped with wow. He checked himself in the mirror before heading out the door. It was only when he crossed the threshold that he replaced his cheerful disposition for a glare. The expression remained on his face, even when he entered Naruto's car.

"What's wrong?" asked Naruto, slightly amuse.

Sasuke crossed his arms and turned his head away from Naruto. "Nothing."

Naruto laughed lightheartedly. "Oh," he said and started the car.

Sasuke kept the thought of Itachi forcing him to go on this outing with Naruto throughout the whole ride. The thought certainly did keep him from thinking other pleasant matters, like how it was actually nice to spend time with Naruto. There were times he would accidentally glance at Naruto. He wanted to start a conversation, but also did not want to seem friendly. He wasn't trying to put up appearance. But whenever he thought about it, his mind would wander to his curse. He's never been in love and Neji's words kept echoing in his head, about how the family is incapable of true love and such.

He sighed. After a moment of chicken, he turned his head fully towards Naruto and opened his mouth, only what came out wasn't quite on the line of flirting. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?"

"You look tired."

"Oh, it's nothing. I stayed up too late."

"What were you doing? Looking at porn?"

Naruto eyed Sasuke surprisingly then burst out laughing. "No, I was definitely not looking at porn." Naruto gave him a few more surprise glances before shaking his head. "I can't believe you said that."

"I know," Sasuke said, trying to rid himself of the blush.

They spy another peek at each other and caught themselves staring into the other's eyes. A long silence spread out between them. Not even the emergency honking of other drivers broke their eye contact. Not even as Naruto drove his car into a busy four-way intersection and pass out onto the other side like gas.

Then a small crack of a smile made its way onto Sasuke's lips and the two couldn't help laughing. There was nothing to laugh about, but they found it most gratifying just to do so.

* * *

Sasuke got out of the car and gave the old building an analyzing eye. The paint was intact and most of its signs were clean and looked new, but cracks on the walls were still visible and other old damages that couldn't be fixed. There wasn't anything special about the café, nothing that would explain why Naruto drove all the way to the outskirt of town to dine in. Sasuke grew with suspicion and quickly look into the minds of the building's customers. His tense shoulders relaxed. At least it wasn't a love hotel, or worse, an auction house. But his suspicion remained. "A Go salon?"

Naruto grinned and rub his head sheepishly. "Well, it was really difficult to think of where to take you. You're really rich so you've probably been to a lot of places. And you're smart too. I thought a little brain stimulation might be more exciting for you than some arcade or the mall."

A queasy, warm feeling formed inside Sasuke's stomach. He thought about Naruto staying up all night and his stomach did a flip. No one has ever said those kinds of things to him before. It was either, 'Here, I'll give you this lollipop if you'll follow me to somewhere nice,' or, 'Hey, want to be a gravure idol?' Still, "You didn't have to drive all the way out here."

Naruto slung his bag over his shoulder and held the door open. "Yeah, but I didn't want some bad rumor about you to get started."

Sasuke pause at those words and seem to think them over. There were no lies in Naruto's thoughts and it made him all the more uneasy. He looks away and covers half of his face with his hand before replying with a muffled thank you. A dash of a blush reddens his face before he disappeared into the salon.

Naruto stood there, shock by what he had seen. He recovered quickly and followed Sasuke, but now with a more tired, yet happy, face. _'Oh boy,'_ he thought.

"You cheated," accused Naruto. His arms were crossed and he had a defiant air around him. "I'm serious. No one can win so many times."

"No, they can't. Unless they're awesome, which I am." Sasuke has a satisfying smirk on his face. It wasn't there because of arrogance, but when he played with Naruto, the young man had given him a really great feel in his brain. Naruto hadn't let Sasuke win on purpose and Sasuke knew that. He honestly hadn't cheated, but he had wanted to know if Naruto was really trying to win and it was just…great! Naruto played moves that left Sasuke bewildered and twisted. It was the first time in his life Sasuke felt excited about playing a game, anything as a matter of fact. He wasn't going to let Naruto know that. The satisfaction became a secret of Naruto only Sasuke would know.

Naruto snuffed begrudgingly. "So what do you want to eat?"

"I don't really care," said Sasuke, but he spotted the glint in Naruto's eyes. "But not that."

"Man! Fine. We'll go eat some rice or something. You know, since we're Asians."

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he followed Naruto to the car. The time he spent with Naruto, he found Naruto to have a painful obsession with ramen. Nearly half of the conversation they had while playing Go was about the damn noodles. Other than that, Sasuke thought the day to be great and will be greater.

Everything is….great!

* * *

'_Everything sucks,'_ thought Sasuke. It started out wonderfully. They were sitting there, talking and enjoying a nice non-ramen meal when Naruto touched his foot. Not with his hand, of course. Their foot made contact and it was nice. Now that part did not suck. It gave Sasuke a tingly feel and made his palms sweat. Then with a simple motion, Naruto's hand reaches out to wipe something from the edge of his mouth. Sasuke remember the gesture made him smile and blush, annoyingly, like a girl. Still great.

'_What fags!'_

Sasuke's ears perked up at the thought. He had identified the source to one of the male waiters. That was when Sasuke felt fully aware of every single person in the entire room. Their thoughts swift in and out of disgust, none were polite. He never cared much for people before, but something inside of him snapped as he saw someone fantasized about enacting a "purification ceremony" in the form of flaying. He just couldn't take it. Their emotions crawled through every space, every nerve and he saw hate. He didn't see it; hate was what he was feeling. It was an irrational hatred and the logic in him knew not to take it seriously, but the pure _taste…_

He had quickly retracted his foot and avoided physical contact with Naruto, but it was on his face: fear.

"What's wrong?" Naruto eye the people around them, but they were already focusing on their food. "Been cope up too long, now you have anthropophobia?" he joked to ease Sasuke.

A wired smile appeared on Sasuke's face.

'_Maybe the manager will kick them out. Ugh, dirtying the place.'_

Sasuke couldn't even attempt a smile anymore. "We should go," he said, hurriedly and grabbed his coat.

"Why? Our food barely got here."

"Ah…I…" He glances nervously at the door where that waiter had disappeared through and back at Naruto. He racked his head for an excuse while seeing the manager's vulgar face. "I'm not feeling well." It wasn't a total lie.

"Ok. Let me pay for the food and I'll take you somewhere," Naruto said, taking out his wallet.

"What?" Sasuke fumbled over the question, his head not quite understanding what Naruto was saying.

"Somewhere. Doctor. You're not feeling well."

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, sure." Sasuke fussed, impatient with Naruto's slow motion. He grabbed the blond's jacket and literally pushed them to the register.

"For a sick person, you're really forceful." Again, Naruto took the joking approach, because he didn't understand what was going on and being amusing was the only solution.

"That will be forty-five dollars and fifty-three cents," said the waiter, who had gone to get the manager; said manager was obviously nearby and eavesdropping.

"What? That's fifteen dollars more than what we ate, which we didn't even finish."

Sasuke ignored that last part. A sense of dread had surrounded him.

'_That's what you get. Now I have to burn those dishes.'_

The thought made Sasuke wince. He was already exhausted from the other customers' discrimination. He only wanted to leave.

The waiter grinned. It wasn't a show of good customer service, but glee. "I'm sorry, sir, but that is what the register said."

Naruto scoffed at the idiocy of that sentence. "Look, use a calculator if you have to. His plate was fourteen, twenty plus a drink of one dollar and thirty-nine cents, which comes to fifteen, fifty-nine. Mine was twelve, ten plus the same drink so it equals thirteen, forty-nine. The sub-total would be twenty-nine dollars and eight cents. Then with a five percent tax, the total should be thirty dollars and fifty-three cents."

The grin was gone from the waiter's face, as did Sasuke's headache. Sasuke calculated the math mentally and found, surprisingly, it to be correct. The moment of awe was short-lived when the manager, whose mind was more brutal, came over.

"Is there a problem?" the manager asked, more to the waiter than to Naruto.

"Yes, there is a problem. Your boy here is trying to overcharge me."

The manager was a middle aged man. Hair still resided on his head, but the thin lines of grey can be seen to the scalp. Still, being his age, he felt a sense of maturity over younger folks and had a habit of speaking in a tedious manner. His hands barely touched the register and his eyes did even less. "Sir, there doesn't seem to be a problem with the register and we do not make mistakes, such as overcharging good customers."

"And what is that suppose to mean?"

Meanwhile, Sasuke was having his own trouble. He had seen the malice running through the man's mind and it made him want to throw up. Usually other people's minds were simple, but when it was corrupted with negative emotions, it becomes filthy. The surface was like swimming on trash and excrements. Then deep below was that same irrational hatred.

It made sense, if his senses were like everyone else's sense, who was all feeling the same thing that man was feeling. Sasuke's head pounded, the pulse vibrating throughout his skull.

"Sir, you have eaten a meal here at our establishment and all we want you to do is pay. Or am I going to have to call the police?"

The customers mumbled their negligible agreements. Naruto simply told them to shut it.

"Fine, call the police if you want to. We'll see who—."

"JUST PAY HIM!"

The outburst had stopped Naruto and astonished the manager and pretty much everyone. He had not joined in the argument so they had forgotten about him.

Sasuke had a burning shame in the pit of his stomach with everyone staring at him. He took out his own wallet, while trying to keep his eyes from blurring, and threw out a clutch of money. He probably overpaid them, but right now, he didn't care. The second the money left his hand, he ran out the door.

Now Sasuke lay on his bed, alone and confused. Naruto had run after him, but Sasuke had refused to look him in the eye and insisted on going home without an explanation. Judging by Naruto's personality, he would've wring it out of Sasuke instead silently letting the incident slide, but it might have been the unsteadiness of Sasuke's legs and the sick look he had on his face that shut Naruto's mouth. Naruto had not asked or said anything and dropped Sasuke off.

He reacted badly. Sasuke knew that, but it made him re-examined himself for the first time. Exactly, what is he? He knew the correct term people use for someone like him, but he wasn't even sure of that. He's never felt this way about anyone before. The strong feeling scared him. Then he became angry. He sat there, clenching his fist and look into the mirror. It anger him how much those thoughts affected him. And it anger him to find out how sheltered he has been. For him, the word 'gay' had been just that, a word. He never gave much thought to it, but at that restaurant, he felt the full blown force of what that one little really meant.

'_Wait.'_ Sasuke thought deeply about this for a minute. _'I'm gay.'_ From the mirror, his jaws dropped. _'No, no, no, that isn't right.'_ He bites his lip in concentration then ran downstairs. He stops at the coffee table and drops down to his knee. His fingers flip through the magazine frantically until he found the photo. There it was, a decent enough guy with blue eyes and blond hair staring up at him. The guy was supposedly in a critically acclaimed film that Sasuke has never seen, but he looked the guy's photo up and down. He stared at it closer and from far away. Nothing. He felt nothing. He thought about all the men he has seen and tried to think if any of them was attractive.

Again, nothing.

'_Hmm.'_ He gave the photo another look. _'No, that's wrong.'_ The eyes should sparkle more and the smile wider. The hair was too short. It should have a few strains close to the cheek. Sasuke smile at the photo, now. The image of Naruto flooded his mind and calmed him.

"Umm, is there something I should know?"

The magazine drop from Sasuke's hands as he spun around startled. "Nii-san! You're home?"

"Yes," Itachi said, eyeing the magazine then gave his little brother a suspicious look. "And you? What were you doing?"

"Nothing," Sasuke lied, kicking the magazine under the table. "I was doing nothing."

Itachi nodded, a bemused expression twinkled on his the edge of his face. "Really? Because it looks to me like you were…ogling another man's photograph."

His words froze Sasuke and made him look away with shame.

"Is something wrong?" Itachi sense something wrong in his little brother. "Did something happen with Naruto?"

'_Naruto.'_ Sasuke remember the face he saw in the photo. He remembers the way he felt. The emotion, he knew what it is. "Nii-san?"

"Yes?"

"Do you hate me?" Sasuke's voice cracked as he asked the question.

"What?" Itachi walk forward till he was in front of his brother. "No. Why would you ask that?"

Sasuke step back when his brother reach up a hand to comfort him. He didn't want Itachi to know all of those people's thoughts. "Promise?"

Itachi's hand drops to his side. Forcing his brother to reveal his troubles would break the trust between them. All he could do was say, "Promise."

* * *

**A/N: **For those who don't know what a gravure idol is, use google. I didn't know what the male equivalent of it was so just assume someone mistook Sasuke for a chick.

**Narra:** This wasn't that long.

Ah, my insanity has returned!

**Narra:** How rude. I prefer a more intellectual term.

Shoo.

**Narra:** Did you just 'shoo' me?

Yes. Maybe.

**Narra:** ...the author would like to thank you one of the reviewers.

What are you doing?

**Narra:** This reviewer has brought the author to tears as it was the first comment where the author's improved grammar was mentioned.

Are you ignoring me? And giving a 'thank you'?!

**Narra:** Thank you very much and please wait for the next chapter.

Hey! (screen begins to fade to black) Wait a minute! Wha-?!


	6. Excerpt

This is just something I wrote because one of the reviewer had a question and I think this would be more interesting than some small response. Oh, and the demon slash wizard guy. The reviewer was wondering whether the one who cursed them was a demon or wizard. The answer is both. It'll be explained later on in the story so don't worry. And for other worries; one of my favorite things on my favorite list (and yes, I said favorite twice) is long reviews. I love them! It's not like you type a lot and I'll hate you or something.

Next is the conversation between Neji and Itachi. The 'him' in their convo is the demon/wizard guy and the explanation for "getting inside of Sasuke, but then stopping" will be explained later on as well. And the joining up with other psychics part. Well, when you're cursed, the obvious choices would be either to just let the curse take effect or fight back. Itachi and Neji have been looking for others like themselves to form an army of sort to fight the demon/wizard guy and break the curse. You know, instead of Prince Charming, they decided to go for kick-ass. However, so far they have found nobody like them. Everyone is normal and they're just freaks.

And I do change POVs. I try to make it so that it is easier to follow. I just wanted to get everybody's thoughts out there so I don't have to go and explain it again. Because I forget things.

One last thing. If anyone of you send in a question, make sure to tell me if you would like for me to answer it in the story or not. I don't really care either way. And yeah, just any questions at all.

* * *

**Small Excerpt**

This happened years back when Kiba and Sasuke were still in kindergarten.

"Class, please welcome Sasuke-kun. He's new here and I would like you all to treat him warmly," said the pretty teacher. "Sasuke-kun, why don't you introduce yourself?"

Young Sasuke wore the cute green hat, the navy blue shorts, and white collar shirt as appropriate for the school's uniform. On his baby face was the trademark (though less frightening) scowl. "Hi. I lived in Hokkaido with my nii-san and we moved down here because both of our parents died. Please take care of me."

"A-Alright. How about arts and crafts?"

Little children formed into a group of their exclusive friends for their art project. Some molded clays of shapeless faces, others decided to draw pictures of their stick figure families. Sasuke, being the new kid, sat alone. He would've had a lot of friends due to his naturally cute substances, but his unfriendly nature and superior intellect created a barrier. As Sasuke put the last finishing touches on his Taj Mahal sculpture, a small rough-looking kid approached him.

"Hi."

Sasuke took a moment to take in this unfamiliar creature. The kid had scruffy, black hair and mean eyes. On a closer look, Sasuke realized it was just the way his eyes looked. He held a cup of red paint in his hand and a piece of paper and a brush in the other. On his cheeks were two red fangs still wet from the paint and on his shirt was the name Kiba sewn in. "Hi," Sasuke responded.

"Can I sit with you?"

"Sure." Nobody has ever asked to sit with him before and he found it nice. "But why aren't you sitting with your friends?"

At that, the grin on Kiba's face dulled. "They didn't know my tree-bal symbal as a sign of my 'arrior spirit," he answered, pointing to his cheeks.

"That's cool." Sasuke had watched a documentary with his brother before on this sort of stuff. "What are you drawing?"

"My dog, Akamaru. Cause he's red. See?" Kiba held up the picture for him, but all Sasuke saw was a mutated red blob. Luckily Sasuke didn't have to answer if he really saw it.

Months pass and the two became good friends. The relationship was mostly built on Kiba's inability to understand sarcasm. During this time, Sasuke did meet Akamaru, Kiba's sister's cat, Mercy and their goldfish, Goldie. In turn, Kiba met Neji, Itachi and Hinata.

Their friendship was tested one day when Neji had a vision. Sasuke knew it immediately, because his cousin had on an evil expression.

"What happened?"

"Kiba's pets are going to die," Neji said, nonchalantly and went back to doodling in Itachi's books.

"They are? How?"

Sasuke and Neji didn't fully understand the meaning of death, because of their sheltered childhood. And now Sasuke listened with a fascination befitting of a horror movie fanatic as Neji described details by details of what happened to Akamaru, Mercy and Goldie. This was later retold by Sasuke to Kiba, who didn't come to school the next day.

Sasuke came home the third day with a heavy sigh. "Kiba's not at school today either. I wonder if something happened."

"Hmph. Well, I don't care. He looks at Hinata funny."

Sasuke ignored his cousin and went to his brother's room to ask Itachi if he can take him to Kiba's house for a visit.

"YOU LITTLE BRATS, WHICH ONE OF YOU DREW ON MY HOMEWORK?!"

Sasuke did a U-turn and decided to ask at another time. Neji wasn't the only one with crayons.

* * *

And this little piece down here is for a mistake I did in chapter two. For those of you who noticed. I, obviously, did not want to take responsibilities for that mistake so I did this.

**Bloopers**

"Well, I wanted to know the name of the guy who dared lay his filthy lips on me." The menacing sentence actually sounded very convincing. Ha, Naruto's foot twitch; he's thinking of running...or kicking him. You know, either one.

Naruto narrow his eyes slyly and took several daring steps forward till they were chest to chest. Then he said, "What made you think it was filthy?"

Sasuke's eyes popped out of its socket. "What?!"

"And cut!"

Naruto laughed jokingly and shook his head. "Wow, sorry, everyone. Was thinking of something else."

"Obviously," said Sasuke, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, buddy, watch it. It was one little mistake."

"One little mistake for this scene then a whole other big one for another scene."

"Now I know why you got this job. Probably paid the producers for a little money, huh?"

"You have to kiss me later on. Hope I don't bite off your tongue."

The director held up his horn and blew it. "Whoa, guys. No fighting."

Naruto and Sasuke parted, but the glares were still on their faces.

"Okay, guys, let's do this one more time." He put down the horn and sighed. "Actors."

"Ready! Action!"

"Well, I wanted to know the name of the guy who dared lay his filthy lips on me." The menacing sentence actually sounded very convincing. Ha, Naruto's foot twitch; he's thinking of running...or kicking him. You know, either one.

Naruto narrow his eyes slyly and took several daring steps forward till they were chest to chest. Then he said, "What made you think it was my lips?"

"Alright, perfect! Okay, everyone take five!"


	7. Chapter 6

_Italics_ are for thoughts. Unless it appears once in the middle of a sentence. If a whole sentence is italic, it is thoughts.

Okay, who watch Lost? Anyone? One of my friend she watched it. _Watched. _She missed one episode and then she was really lost. You miss one episode, you miss them all.

The last couple of days I have been so bored. I watched the complete series to Scrubs, Jonas Brothers, Kim Possible, Hannah Montana (waiting for fourth season) re-lived episodes of Supernatural, Bones, and House M.D. and movies such as Stardust, Ultraviolet, Elektra, and almost every film Adam Sandler has ever created. I dont want scary movies because I'm all alone in my house and I would imagine someone creeping up behind me as I sit at my computer. Uggh...just thinking about it gives me the willies.

...I see something out of the corner of my eyes. It could be moving.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Neji concentrated on the object. His brain throbs with the pressure of overusing it. He saw flashes of Sasuke's future and bits and pieces of random pictures. Certain images seem to scratch itself out of Neji's view and replaced it with an empty space of black.

"Anything?" asked Itachi and handed his cousin some water.

Neji drown himself with water before answering. "I could only see up to Thursday."

"That's about three days. We'll need to wait for it before using your powers again." Itachi clinch his head with the tips of his fingers. No definite plan popped into his head. "What did you see?"

"Sasuke really happy with someone," he answered, dropping Sasuke's toothbrush onto the table. His older cousin had suggested Neji rolling around on Sasuke's bed and possibly sniffing it, but Neji rejected the idea over hygienic issues. They had planned to sneak into his room while he's sleeping, but Sasuke has always been a light sleeper. It was hard enough to keep their thoughts from him.

"Who?"

"Most likely Naruto. It's odd. Sometimes I see him in my visions and other times, nothing."

They didn't say anything, but immediately understood the possibility: Naruto could be the demon that cursed them. But that made no sense either. Itachi had seen the beginning of Naruto's life and the death of his parents. Nothing in it made Naruto seem demon-ish, except perhaps his constant mischievous deeds.

"Perhaps he is curse like us?" prompted Neji.

Another possibility. Itachi had the power to see an entire person's past, but Naruto's life had bits and pieces ripped out. They didn't want to ask Naruto either. If they were wrong, it could prove troublesome for Sasuke, especially when he is the one closest to breaking the curse.

"What about Gaara?" asked Itachi.

Neji shook his head. "No. He _looks_ murdourous, but he's not."

"True. His past was amusing." Then Itachi sighed. "A dead end again."

"Yeah."

They sat in an uncomfortable silence till Itachi patted Neji's shoulder, a gesture to show the end of their little meeting. Itachi watch his little cousin walk away before heading over to his desk. Inside one of the drawers, beneath the bottom lift is a knife. He stood there, staring at the knife. His mind drifted to better times with his family, which was rare. He wasn't thinking of suicide. Not right now, at least. But he made up his mind about one thing: saving his family and future annoying generations. He isn't going to let what happen to his mother belay itself onto Hinata. He places the knife back into its drawer and looked at the clock. Twenty minutes had passed. He headed downstairs, having made up his mind to say good-bye to his family first. What he found downstairs was far from the scenario he had hope for. Sasuke spouse some nonsense question and Itachi promise never to hate him. Only Itachi knew it should've been the other way around.

Sasuke had made a decision about the curse, but it matters not to Itachi. He, himself, had come to a decision that would benefit them all. It wasn't like they had any magical powers to stop the curse. This is the only way.

"Did something happen?" asked Itachi.

"Nothing big," answered Sasuke.

Itachi shuffled his feet and noticed in amusement how Sasuke was doing the same thing. "You want to watch a movie?"

"What? Why?" Sasuke squint his eyes in suspicion.

He took out a pair of gloves and put them on. The gloves helped dispel his powers a bit. "Happy?"

Still, Sasuke did not relent. His brother had never asked to simply watch a movie together before. It was awkward and very, very suspicious.

"I want to spend some time together. My week is almost over, remember?"

That definitely made the suspicion disappeared. Sasuke sat down on the couch with Itachi joining him. The impending death of his brother made Sasuke all the more determined to go through with his decision as did Itachi.

"So…what did you want to watch?"

Itachi hadn't thought of that.

* * *

Neji love taking walks whenever he needed to think. Actually walking was the only option for him since his bike needed a new chain and he didn't have a license for a car. Yup, Neji "loves" walking. He decides pay a stop at his favorite bookstore, which happens to have every types of book he could ever want. They have books that aren't out till two months later and last and first edition of every series, even the ones that supposedly burned in a terrible Nazi fire.

His presence brought a ring to the bell hanging above. The owner immediately looked up and gave him a greeting smile, one that is neither warm nor joyful, but customary.

"Neji-san, what may I find for you today?"

"Hi, Mr…ahem!" Neji never did get his name. "This might sound weird," _really weird_. "But do you happen to have the Grimoire?"

The owner smile's thin and his head turned towards a certain angle when you want to give someone a look that says they're crazy. "You want the Grimoire?"

"Yes. You know, for educational purposes." Neji sense he made it worse.

"No."

Neji felt a small despair. He knew it was stupid to ask and now the guy was probably going to call the warden on him.

"But I do have a grimoire."

His pale blue eyes open in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"A grimoire." The owner reach down, pull up a big black book, and brought it onto the counter for Neji to see.

The book did indeed have the words Grimoire printed, possibly gold, on the front. The edges were rough and had definitely seen better days. Soft, but dirty leather bound itself to the metallic cover of the book. The book wasn't lock, but had an attached string in the middle to bookmark one's page. For a Grimoire, it was pretty considerate and weird that the owner would have one.

"Oh," Neji said, finally getting the joke. "Is this one of those books used for TV shows? Like that one with the three girls?"

The owner looked confused, but shook his head nonetheless. "It'll be twenty bucks, please."

Neji finger his wallet for money while wondering why the ancient book cost so little, but it held no surprise since the store seem to always have good prices for him. "By the way, what happened to the other guy?"

"Who?"

"The young man? He was working here two days ago, I think."

"It was probably my nephew. He's on vacation."

"Vacation?"

"Yes."

"In the middle of a weekday? In a school semester?"

The creepy, but polite smile came back on the owner's face. "Yes. Would that be all, sir?"

Neji nodded and quickly left. The store is his favorite, but the place gave him the creeps. With the Grimoire safely in his backpack, he made his way home, or to an ice cream shop. He has a craving for buttermilk and strawberry. The craving diminished as he felt a dark presence eyeing him. He turned around and found the assailant. "Oh, Gaara."

The red head made his way over, quietly and like a Cheetah. "…hi."

Over the time Neji knew Gaara (approximately two to three hours), he found Gaara to be extremely shy, intelligent, and sensitive to the cold. Neji thought of some more things he knew about Gaara: the way he ducks his head from people's eyes and though it looks like he's plotting something, if you look closely you can see the pink blush of shyness dashing over his face before it vanished in the next second.

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

"Just talking a walk," Gaara replied in that cold way that he does.

"Okay." Neji made a hum at the silence. Besides Gaara giving him a lift, they have almost nothing to talk about. "You want to go get ice cream?" Then Neji wince inwardly at his question. Gaara hates the cold so having to eat a blob of frozen sweets must be the worst thing for him.

"Sure. I'll pay," Gaara said, pulling at Neji's sleeve when the boy hesitated to move.

"Wait, you don't have to pay," was all Neji said. He wonders about the many different reasons why Gaara would choose to get ice cream with him. The fantasy in his head brought a smile to his face. _'And then there would be super heroes flying everywhere…'_

* * *

Neji snicker. He was trying to hold in the laughter while eating ice cream, which is a dangerous trick on its own. Gaara sulk with the slowly melting chocolate ice cream in his hand.

"It wasn't that funny."

Neji tried to say, 'Yes, it was,' but he didn't want to risk the ice cream shooting out of his mouth so he only nodded furiously. After swallowing and several deep breaths, Neji said, "You didn't have to squint at him."

Gaara lightly push Neji in the shoulder and with the hint of smile on his lips.

When the two were getting ice cream, Gaara had a hard time in the air conditioned room with all those freezers of ice creams. He had glared at the coldness and tried to will it to warm. When his turn came to order, he didn't know what to get. He looked at the menu, squinting to see better and the guy behind the register had screamed and leap through the glass door, screaming, "TERRIORIST!" Neji watch from the sideline as everyone took a look at Gaara and there was that long silence to see what was going to happen. Gaara lifted the hood over his head and ordered chocolate ice cream. Neji had never seen someone have such a dramatic effect on anyone such as Gaara and thought it hilarious.

Neji's ears perk up. "Did you say something?"

"I asked if you wanted to go see a movie with me," muttered Gaara.

"Which one?"

Gaara looked surprise at Neji's quick answer. When his brain caught up, he quickly thought of an answer. But Gaara suddenly stopped; his body was tense as he stared ahead. An angry aura resided from a midpoint in the direction they were heading. It felt oddly familiar to Gaara, but he couldn't quite place it properly.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's go this way," Gaara suggested, leading Neji in the opposite direction.

"Why?" he asked, but still followed. Gaara's expression was different than his usual murderous looks.

"I know a closer theatre." Gaara really didn't, but he'll make something up as they go.

After the movie, Gaara walked Neji home and since Neji's home is really far away (like lots of miles), they had to stop a few times. At their fifth stop, Neji glance at Gaara from his crouch position.

"Aren't you tired?" asked Neji, tired and sweating from walking uphill. _'We just had to live on a hill. It was so much easier walking down.'_

"No, I have a lot of endurance." Gaara extended a hand to help Neji up then he bend down and beckon Neji to jump on.

"Are you sure? Even if you have endurance, what if you sprain something?"

Gaara scowled. "I'm not _that_ old."

Surprisingly, Gaara walked without stopping or complaint. And it was comfortable. You know, there's the piggy back ride that just hurts your middle region. Their waist is too wide; your leg is too short. Anyway, Neji felt a gushing of warmth as he clung to Gaara. Also, Gaara's hair smells really good. It didn't turn him on, much, but then he remembered his ani-sama giving him a piggy back. His childhood memory and getting turned on felt really wrong together. So wrong. The whole way, they didn't talk. Neji just rested his chin on Gaara's head and closed his eyes in bliss.

'_I wonder what Gaara would think if I tell him that.'_ Neji, then, realized his feelings exceeded those of friendship and imagining what Gaara was thinking scared him, in that perhaps Gaara didn't feel the same. Neji felt maybe his feelings were weird. His ani-sama never talked much about relationships. What he wanted to know, Neji learned from watching TV. And an episode always ended badly if the person you're confessing to didn't like you back. You get drunk, they get drunk, and the both of you wake up in someone else's bed. Neji imagine Gaara waking up in a stranger's bed (a beautiful stranger) and his arms around the man's chest tighten. He felt a new and odd possessiveness towards Gaara.

As Gaara carried him home, he thought of what to say. Should he ask Gaara out on a date? Neji rejected the idea as soon as he thought of it. Again, he watches a lot of soap operas. His heart pounded in anticipation as the gate of his home came into view. _'What should I do?'_ When Gaara stopped in front of the gate, Neji was so deep in thought, he forgot to jump off until Gaara shifted his weight uncomfortably. Neji stood there and with his mouth gaping with empty words. "What are you, an animal?" he blurted out.

Gaara raise an invisible eyebrow and took a step forward. Hesitantly, he brought a hand up to the side of Neji's face. Before sealing the space between them, he whispered, "Maybe."

Neji knew the kiss was coming, but he still reacted badly to it. He pushed Gaara away; his eyes wide with unexpected fear. At the fleetingly hurt look passing through Gaara's eyes, he grabbed the red head's hand tightly to prevent him from going anywhere. His tongue twists around with answers of 'um' and 'uh' and not coming up with any real words. Seeming to understand Neji's turmoil feelings, Gaara waited.

Looking into Gaara's patience, green eyes, he pulled the other man towards him and crushing their lips together. He wanted this kiss; his mind was thinking too much for him to continue it so he threw all reasoning out the door and instead let himself slip into the bliss of kissing Gaara, who held him tightly; perhaps he was afraid Neji would push him away again.

Gaara stood two or so inches taller than Neji and having the shorter boy's mouth under him didn't completely satisfy his thirst. He lifted Neji up, one hand on his thigh for support and the other position at his neck. Neji yelp in surprise, but instinctively wrap his other leg around Gaara's waist. With Neji's mouth latched above his, Gaara _drank_. And, though, Neji was inexperienced, he made up for it with his greed for Gaara's kiss.

They kissed and kissed till there was no reserve and all that was left is familiarity and a lover's intimacy.

* * *

Sasuke and Itachi tore their eyes away from the screen to address their cousin. The welcome died in their mouth when they saw the goofy grin planted on Neji's face. He moved in a dizzying waltz-like manner and disappeared up the stairs.

Itachi look at Sasuke for an answer, but his little brother shrugged and return to the movie.

* * *

**A/N:**

I found this cool karaoke place near by. It makes me feel like I'm in Japan. Sometimes it does, because most of the songs on there are in Japanese or Korean. Hell, I'll sing it anyway.

"Ye-ah!  
I don't understand this!  
Maybe if it was in English  
But no no no no no  
This place totally blow"  
(Guitar Solo)

Yes, English and this doesn't really rhyme, but imagine that it does.


	8. Excerpt 2

Excerpt 2

"Its still ten thirty; how many outfits does he have?"

"Knowing you, it will probably take a few." Itachi set the documents down then went over to the shelf, pretending to browse for a book. There was a pause in which Sasuke thought he was going to be scold at. "Did you enjoy the party last night?"

That was a ridiculous question. Of course he _didn't_ enjoy the party. Matter of fact, it wasn't suppose to be a party, but a _small_ get-together. Something tells Sasuke that this was all planned by Kiba and his brother to get him to find a girl, but Sasuke will not be led off the subject. "Should we really be talking about this right now? You're dying for crying out loud."

"Nonsense. I am in perfectly good health."

"You only have one week left before you turn eighteen. Its more important that you find a girl than me."

"Sasuke, we have—wait, what? One week?"

The director snap his fingers and a P.A. immediately materialize the script into his outstretch hand. "Let me see," he said, flipping through the pages. "It's two weeks."

"Yes, because it would be ridiculous to end this story in just one week. We're not filming Romeo and Juliet here," said the actor who plays Itachi.

At his statement, everyone gave each other a thoughtful look before the director snapped his fingers again and the P.A. appeared at his side with a pen and paper. "Call the author, see if we can do a re-write to give the story a more romantic feel to it and can someone, please, fix the grammars in these scripts. The word is 'it's', not 'its'. The tenses are all wrong and if the author can't differentiate the difference between blonde and blond, then just put in a name for crying out loud. It's starting to affect the actors. Eventually someone in the audience is going to notice. Fix it then we'll shoot it again."

"We can't, sir."

"Why not?"

"…we don't have enough extra film to do everything again."

"What? Argh, curse those cheap people—names I can't remember—who fund our TV show!" The director let out a deep breath. "Ok, we're going to continue filming according to the script. Let's try to fix the scripts for the episodes we haven't film. And hopefully, no one watching this will know and send in complaints."


	9. Chapter 7

This is for the crazy reviewers out there. So...who has read the recent chapter of Bleach?

Chapter 7

* * *

The clock made loud ticking noises in the background to further emphasize the quiet atmosphere of Naruto meeting Sasuke's brother. To Sasuke, it's annoying and meaningless, but for Naruto, it's like live-action Grand Theft Auto. Naruto did not know how to navigate through this, much less survive. It wasn't as if he would get ten points every time he makes a wrong move and kill a pedestrian. After the rave, Naruto was driven back to Sasuke's home and had been further refuse any other transportation. Naruto would've objected, but Itachi, Sasuke's brother, did it for him and invited him inside for a drink.

'_Oh lord, I feel like I'm Pac-Man surrounded by multi-color jellyfishes.'_ As Naruto thought this, it transmitted to Sasuke, who innocently claimed the twitching on the corner of his mouth is just a muscle disorder, limited to that area.

"I heard you are in college, Uzumaki-san. May I ask what you are majoring in?" asked Itachi.

Naruto answered, but in his mind, he had a five second hesitation where he thought this was the type of question you ask your brother's…intimate one. He has thought of asking Sasuke on dates, though never as an official couple. Now that it has been brought up, Naruto quite like the idea.

"I see no point in beating around the bush," said Itachi. The comment made Sasuke grow cold. "Why don't you go on a date with Uzumaki-san tomorrow, Sasuke?"

"What? You have got to be kidding me!" bellowed Sasuke. His brother shrugged so he looks to Naruto for assistance. The assistance would be for Naruto to reject him completely and storm out of the house in a disgusted manner.

"Sounds good. How about it, Sasuke?" Naruto gave his best smile. He liked Sasuke very much the first time he saw him and the delicious smell Sasuke always gave off was a plus plus in the attraction.

Sasuke glared at Naruto's ability to always make a bad situation worse.

'_Come on, little brother. What have you got to lose?'_

Sasuke turn his glare to his brother as they communicated telepathically. Well, it wasn't as if Itachi could tell what Sasuke was thinking, but he summed up every feedback as 'fuck you.'

As this was going on, Naruto sat awkwardly on the sideline. There it was for Naruto again. He felt weird around Sasuke minus the infatuation. Naruto could, sometimes, feel this "probing." The feeling got stronger when he was in close proximity of them. And with Sasuke glaring (no matter how sexy) at Itachi, Naruto tingled inside. The feeling wasn't threatening, but strange. Suddenly there was another. It made Naruto tense, but it wasn't coming from the Uchiha brothers. The aura came from outside the house. Naruto thought of Gaara and smirk at the red head's intentions.

"Fine, I'll go."

So lost in thought, Naruto almost missed the reply. Almost. "Great. I'll come by around nine tomorrow." However, not one to face the anticipated death outside, Naruto changed the topic and made sure to make this a long conversation.

* * *

"I could…drive you home," said Sasuke.

Naruto tried not to smile at the struggle Sasuke took to say that. "No, it's alright. I'll walk, sleep in a tree. Besides, it's late and you'll need to sleep for tomorrow."

Sasuke roll his eyes. "Don't be expecting me to enjoy it."

The blond shrugged and gave him a 'maybe' look. "Good night."

"Yeah. 'Night."

Naruto walked a good distance away from the house then stopped. A figure approached him from behind a tree. "Gaara. Didn't expect to see you in this part of town."

"I could say the same for you." A light shone on Gaara's hand; a spell formed itself in his hand. "Why are you here?"

"Whoa, now. I'm only here for the usual thing I always do. But why are _you_ here?"

"Why are you targeting the Uchiha family?"

"I've answered all of your questions, yet you've to answer any of mine." Naruto duck as a fireball was thrown at him. He glances at the burning tree before putting it out then smirk at Gaara. "I wouldn't be doing that if I were you. Wouldn't want your precious target to burn in their sleep, now would we?"

"Do not threaten me," as he said this, spell flew at Naruto. "I am warning you, fox. Stay away from them."

The blue eyes of Naruto flashed red for an instant at the murderous aura within the sentence. He grinned and whispered mischievously, "You didn't say please." This time he didn't duck the ball of fire aiming for his head. He simply reached up and extinguished it with his hand. He flash behind Gaara and swing a kick, but not before Gaara dodged. Naruto laughed and teleported to the wide branch hanging behind Gaara; he seated himself down and crossed his arms. "Tell me," he said, observing Gaara. "Why are you so interested in them? So amazingly protective of this particular family."

Gaara didn't answer, but it only made Naruto more curious. For as long as he has known Gaara, which is very long, Gaara has never so much as twitched an eye at the murders happening around him, except for one instance. A light bulb lit up in Naruto's head. "Ah, I see. Overcompensating for—."

Naruto narrowly missed the dark spell thrown at him. The danger of death made him laugh hard. "So eager to kill me, but I'm sure you'll lose if you try, same as last time."

"It won't be like last time, I assure you. Now say you'll leave or I will slaughter you where you are."

"I mean them no harm."

"And stop it with the ancient talk."

"Aw, come on. I was just messing around," he said, evaporating to Gaara's side. He wrapped an arm around Gaara's shoulder before the red head shrugged him off.

"Why are you here?"

"I told you, the usual. But the Uchiha are safe," he added when the glare darkened in Gaara's eyes. "You know I do not lie."

"Much."

"Much," Naruto agreed.

After a moment of silence, Gaara asked, "Why didn't I sense you before?"

Naruto gestured to the necklace circling his neck. The necklace was made with a plain, black string, two silver drops hung on each side of the emerald. "Tsunade gave it to me. As a token."

"A token of what?"

"None of your business," he said through a wide grin.

Gaara didn't inquire anymore, only faded away as did Naruto.

* * *

"It was you."

Naruto dropped the man he was threatening and looked up. "If it isn't Gaara. Here to join in my assault or stop it?"

"I felt a murderous aura and came to check it out. You might want to tone it down. That necklace isn't meant to cloak that level of…" Gaara eye the man then back at Naruto. "…aggressiveness."

"My bad."

The man crawled back against the wall of the roof. "W-Who are you people?"

"Sleep," commanded Naruto and the man's body slumped into slumber. Naruto watch the suspicious glance Gaara gave the crumbling form of a man near his feet, but if he was curious, Gaara didn't voice it. Naruto didn't plan to explain either.

"Funis Letum." Gaara pointed at Naruto.

Immediately, the blonde felt stiffness in his body. "Hey! I thought we were talking peacefully!" The binding tightened. "I said I wasn't going to hurt them!"

"Where's my Grimoire?"

"What? You've lost it!"

"I did not lose it," growled Gaara.

"I meant your mind. Why would I steal your Grimoire? I have no need for it." Naruto struggled against the spell, but it tightened at his response. He hadn't expected for Gaara to bind him. Usually, his rival doesn't believe in interrogation. It was kill first and…uh, more killing.

"You said you were here for the usual."

"Yeah, as in crimes." When he spoke those words, a burning sensation ran up his body. "Different crime, different crime!" The burning stop, but the binding did not lessen. Naruto didn't wait for it to. He formed a spell in his hand and threw it at Gaara, hitting him in the chest. It broke Gaara's concentration and released the binding. "You started it," Naruto said quickly when Gaara was about to throw another spell at him. "I didn't steal your book. I see no point. Che, we particularly have the same stuff in it, anyway."

"Yes, because you stole it the first time. If I find out you have it, you'll be sorry." Gaara walked away and disappeared from the roof.

Naruto stuck his tongue at where Gaara used to be. He knew Gaara wasn't running away from their fight, but rather the last time they fought, they leveled a mountain and Blowdown Lake was formed. Why do you think it was called that? Cause the mountain was _blow down_ then wa-la, it rained. A groan near him captured his attention. He had forgotten about the waiter.

The guy's eyes zone in on Naruto. "Who are you?"

"Someone you don't want to meet again." Naruto leaned down. "Learn to be a better person or there won't be a second chance for you." He taps the guy's head playfully and left.

Later when the waiter went downstairs after his weird experience, he found a whole room of unconscious people; the manager and customers who were here this morning. He called the police, but had nothing useful to tell them, because he couldn't even remember who he saw on the roof.

* * *

Naruto checked his watch again. He agreed to meet Sasuke here and he was excited. From Sasuke's numerous rejection to his affection (hey, that rhymed) he had thought it would take years before Sasuke would initiate a meeting with him. So he was excited and a bit afraid. When someone says they wanted to meet you to talk and such, it rarely would mean anything other than to break up with you, but of course, it wasn't as if he and Sasuke were officially dating. Still, Naruto was, is afraid. And it was the first time he's ever felt afraid without a misdirected javelin (1984 Olympic) aiming for his precious. To calm his nerves, Naruto magically tripped a few people for fun. _'Heh, humans, they always think they trip by themselves.'_

"Hi."

A grin instantaneously came out on Naruto's face. Every time he was near Sasuke, he always wanted to smile, grin, or any other form of facial action to express how happy he is. Naruto never felt so happy with anyone in his life. There is so much happiness in him that he expected himself to pop white wings and grow a halo, which is impossible now that he re-thought it. "Hi," he greeted.

"Let's go."

"Go where?" Naruto didn't remember where they were supposed to be going.

"I told you on the phone," Sasuke said to jog Naruto's memories.

"Oh. It was probably after I went into shock when you told me you wanted to meet me."

"What, first time you've been asked out?" teased Sasuke.

"No, first time _you_ asked me."

"Well, don't get too happy about it. It probably won't happen again."

"Oh, but I am. Extremely happy." The grin grew into a full Grinch-like grin. Naruto couldn't help how cute Sasuke got when he wanted to hide his embarrassment.

"Ahem. To refresh your memories, we're going to see a movie."

"A movie." Naruto thought nothing of it as they walked, but then realization hit him like a brick. "Movie? We're going to see a movie?"

"Yes, a movie," Sasuke stopped walking to stare at Naruto's ridiculousness. "Is there water in your ear or…?"

"No, no, no. I was just…surprised."

Sasuke blushed again, because of Naruto's intense stare. He started walking again to possibly help the rising heat in his body. "Wipe that grin off your face. It's disgusting."

"I really wish I could." Naruto kept his eyes on Sasuke's face and move to walk in front of him while still staring at Sasuke.

Sasuke frown, but didn't say anything right away until it got down right frustrating. "Stop walking like that."

Delight sparkled in Naruto's eyes. "I really wish I could do that too."

Sasuke's dark eyes quickly looked away and instead focused itself on the ground. He doubts looking into Naruto's mind would help stop the blood flowing to his head.

* * *

Long, pale fingers skimmed along the photograph. It moves to the pearl necklace and miscellaneous items on the red-wood table. Itachi's eyes move in twitching motions. His lids hovered like a vibration above his eyes as his mind went through each of the object's past.

Don't, his mother had screamed. His father had died on the newly furnished carpet. The carpet had been ripped out afterwards by a mad woman as her son watched on, but now she cursed and cried; both at her husband and the demon who took his life.

She had been five years older than her young husband and married him with the knowledge of the curse. Her tears stained her dress, his shirt and the carpet. Unknown to her, her two sons were watching; one in confusion and the other one utterly incapable of helping her.

And a year or two later, her mind couldn't function in its deteriorating state and she died.

Why, if he loves her, why did he die? His mother's cry went unanswered.

Itachi let go of the bracelet. His mother had thrown it out, but the young boy had found it and kept it to this day. Itachi wanted to strength his resolve by immersing in past memories, especially the pains. Then again he occasionally wanted to lose his mind like his mother. She saw fantasies that took her away from the reality he was in. Another Itachi, another Sasuke, another family in a world his father existed and everyone was happy. When she came back from one of her trips, she only cried and wished to go back. Other times she would say she could stay, but mostly she wanted to go back to that happy world.

On the other hand, Itachi knew his brother suffered the most. Sasuke could see into his mother's mind and even if he didn't understand it at the time, he would keep the memory with him until the day he would know what they mean. Itachi kept his brother away from her as much as he could, but Neji, he couldn't. Neji probably saw her suicide, though he never talked about it.

That reminded Itachi of his uncle. Neji never knew his parents and Hinata grew up with poor substitutes. He pulled out the knife from its hiding place. This small object would, perhaps, lessen their burdens. It would lessen all future generations' burdens. They wouldn't have to carry it anymore.

* * *

**Small Excerpt**

"Hi, Mr…ahem!" Neji never did get his name. "This might sound weird," _really weird_. "But do you happen to have a grimoire?"

The owner smile's thin and his head turned towards a certain angle when you want to give someone a look that says they're crazy. "You want a grimoire?"

"Yes. You know, for educational purposes." Neji sense he made it worse.

"No."

Neji felt a small despair. He knew it was stupid to ask and now the guy was probably going to call the warden on him.

"But I do have the Grimoire."

His pale blue eyes open in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"The Grimoire." The owner reach down, pull up a big black book, and brought it onto the counter for-.

"Wait!" A producer came running into the studio with the script flailing in his hand. "Director?"

The director lean out of his chair to eye his enemy. "What?"

"Um...the script the actor have is wrong."

"How so?"

"Well, like the scene you're filming right this minute...umm, a few words is misplaced."

"So?"

The producer stared in shock at the director. "So? So? So we have a fanatic out there. If they find out how impossible it is for Gaara to have _the Grimoire_, they'll send lots of complaints to our studio. We already have a room of letters for the misspelled words and other grammar errors the viewers seem to have noticed."

The cone snapped in the director's hand.

"See, this is that and that is this. Okay? And action!" The producer ran out before any outside of the script happened.

"Hi, Mr…ahem!" Neji never did get his name. "This might sound weird," _really weird_. "But do you happen to have the Grimoire?"

The owner smile's thin and his head turned towards a certain angle when you want to give someone a look that says they're crazy. "You want the Grimoire?"

"Yes. You know, for educational purposes." Neji sense he made it worse.

"No."

Neji felt a small despair. He knew it was stupid to ask and now the guy was probably going to call the warden on him.

"But I do have a grimoire."

His pale blue eyes open in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"A grimoire." The owner reach down, pull up a big black book, and brought it onto the counter for Neji to see.

After the scene ended, the director pulled his assistant to the side. "Get me the number of the writer."

"Why?"

"BECAUSE WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF FILM! And just...get me the number."

* * *

**A/N:**

Anyway, about Bleach. Have you guys noticed that Aizen is sporting a mullet-like hair? He is an evil character. I don't exactly see him saying, "Business in the front, party in the back." But seriously, the hair. It is long. It is luscious. And it is rocking. I wish I had hair like that. Just what kind of conditioner was that cocoon using? You know, the one he was in. And why is the hair longer? Unless... Think about it like this. The Hogyoku's power is to make desires real for those around it, right? So, like, did Aizen wanted long hair? Besides ruling the world, he wanted something to flip? I'm just imagining him flipping his hair like one of those girls in the shampoo commercials. Whoosh, whoosh. "Yes, I rule the world." Then he whispers, "Because of my hair."


	10. Chapter 8

I wanted to make this chapter super long, because you guys have waited a long time. You might've forgotten about me, but I have always had you folks beating in my heart. Ba-dump, Ba-dump. What's that? Oh, it's my fans.

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Neji went to a quiet section of the library and pop open the heavy pages of the grimoire. He didn't want to read this at home, least his ani-sama saw. His ani-sama was already worried after Sasuke pulled his little stunt with the rabbit; he didn't need to know about Neji's own learning of the occult. Neji scanned the introductory and the chapter titles. Finding nothing usefully specific, he flipped to the back and found an index, which he found weird for a grimoire. He found the section for demons and turned the pages to it. Though he hate to admit it, Sasuke had been right about using a summoning spell. Well, right up to the point when Sasuke's experiments switched to sacrificial rituals.

**Demons are the highest level of evil beings (see also, Lucifer pg 666) and are equal in power to their counterparts; the Angels (see pg 999). In the beginning when He created the world, He also made three life forms: Angels, the good and just; Demons, the evil and vile; and humans, the blank and susceptible to influences. **

Skim.

**Demons are very proud creatures and their presence demands the most utmost respect, unless they are low-level demon servants. In which case, respect is optional. They take pleasure in destroying human relations and wrecking havoc wherever they go. **

Blah, blah, blah, thought Neji. He skimmed over the histories of demons, much of it glorifying how magnificent it is to be evil. He didn't expect much of the grimoire to contain so much history. He thought it would have more spells. Some of the usual spells include a how to change one's appearance, unless you were a natural shapeshifter, and teleportation spell.

**Each demon owns a grimoire, a book of dark magic, and is not to be confused with the Grimoire, which possesses the most extensive collection of dark magic since the olden days. For a family of demons, they may choose to possess one to pour their combine knowledge of magic into and it passes down to the next first born/hatched (for birthing, see pg 568). Demons are highly protective of their grimoire and so casts protective spells to conceal, defend, or/and attack any possible threat after the book. Stealing a grimoire is punishable by death, but can be prevented if the right course of action is taken. These rules are magically spellbound by every demon lord once they took power so as not to cause unnecessary war. **

**The first proper thievery of a grimoire is if the demon, or any member with authorization over the grimoire, freely gives it away. This is extremely rare, however, but is possible. Once gifted away, it cannot be revoke.**

**The second is termination of the owner, thus granting ownership to the victor. The level of difficulty for this task is dependent on the position of power of the owner and the discretion at which it is done. This is not uncommon and is one of the most direct routes to obtaining the grimoire. If found and caught with the grimoire, the thief can be taken to the judgement circle to be tried and punished, or it can be settled separately by the thief and plaintiff. **

**The third is through a duel of any kind, with the grimoire presented as the stake. Upon ending, the prize is given to the winner. This is also not an uncommon approach, but is considered a high stake as it usually results in death for the loser. **

**The final is thru marriage. Another demon would be able to obtain the grimoire if matrimonial union is formed. This occasionally works. Marriage does not always automatically make non-blood relatives passable to the barriers surrounding the grimoire, because extra protection can be taken to secure the grimoire against all other, except for the owner. **

Neji weight the possibility that the book he is holding is a real grimoire owned by a real demon. It wasn't as if he stole it, right? He paid for it in a book store. And if a demon wanted the book back, Neji would need a refund. They can't be unreasonable as to kill him for it. But it is one of the rules for taking a grimoire. He wonders if Gaara can take them. It's one of his scenarios where the demons are such sissy-bags that Gaara's evil eye beam can scare them off. Unlikely. It wasn't as if Gaara had powers to defend himself against. He had lost all hope of turning back when he discovered that his power didn't work on the book.

He shrugs off the possibility of that happening and continues reading on. There was a page warning demons about the rarity of a human winning against them and gaining a supernatural servant. It also states that demons are proud beings and thus some are easily sway by anger. Good to know, thought Neji. It wasn't as if he was going to poke the bear after leading it to his house, but it is one way to have the demon enter a duel with him. Now, "Spell, spell, spells."

**How to Summon a Demon**

The letters were big and bold. Under it was a pentagram with weird letters tracing the edges. A small inscription—could be Latin—was on the side, which Neji can only assume to be the incantation.

**This can only work if one is a demon, or in possession of power.**

"Seeing the future definitely counts." It wasn't too complicated and easily drawn. He checks the back and front page to make sure it doesn't require spilling blood. If it comes down to it a prick of a finger, or red tofu, would do.

"Hi."

Neji look up, close the book and set his arms on top of the gold branded word, Grimoire. "Hi," he said in return as Gaara seated himself.

"What are you doing?" Gaara's eyes went to the book.

At the curious stare, he slides the book onto his lap and into his backpack. "Nothing, just researching."

"About demons?"

Neji saw the amusement in Gaara's eyes staring right back at him and blushed. He remained silent and made no move to answer. How suspicious he must have looked to hide the book. He should've just left the book where it was. He couldn't think of anything to say and avoided Gaara's face.

"No excuses? You could've said it was for an English project."

Neji's forehead furrowed. "Why would I lie?"

Gaara smile and shook his head. "Lots of people would," he mumbled to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Better be," Neji said, giving Gaara a mock-like punch. They sat smiling together, not at each other for the embarrassment of it all. Neji stuck a tongue out and wet his lips then froze. He remember what they had done yesterday, kissing and touching. It brought up an almost absurd mortification in him. He remember the heat and the willingness to let Gaara do anything to hm. Nothing he would've objected to. He couldn't forget the shameless thoughts and wanted to. Gaara talking to him is a good sign, at least. Or perhaps it is because he's such a slut.

Perhaps sensing the mental battle, Gaara stood up and pulled Neji up into a kiss. He was prepared for Neji's violent shove. He figures it to be Neji's instinctive response to surprising affectionate actions. His hands slide under Neji's jacket and held him tightly while his mouth worked to rough Neji up. Gaara only meant to erase Neji's awkwardness, but once his tongue tasted Neji again, he became overwhelm. His grimoire did talk about the unbelievable sensation you'll have when you've found a mate, but Gaara never imagined it to be so like…Neji! No word can describe it, but Neji, his Neji.

But controlling himself, he parted their lips and yearned to join them again when he saw Neji's discomfort at doing so. He still held Neji tightly, because the dizziness in Neji's pale eyes did not seem to have faded yet. "You could've tried to stop me."

"But I want…," he said between heavy breaths. "I just want—."

Gaara quickly caught Neji's lips again, but did not encourage any other action than the simple contact. Composing himself, he whispers against Neji's lips to never say those words. Not ever, only not right now. "I…want to do this the proper way and you are not helping me. I want us to know each other better before anything else. I really want to know you, your life."

"My life? Lived for seventeen years, never moved out of home," cried Neji, as he lean in for another kiss, which Gaara prevented. "If we're both willing…"

Gaara place a gentle hand on Neji's chin and looked into his eyes. Neji didn't know what, but he saw a secret Gaara couldn't tell. Gaara's green eyes sparkled a deep resentment and hesitation that told Neji of what Gaara couldn't say.

"Alright," said Neji. He straightens himself with a nonchalant hand. It wasn't as if he wasn't embarrassed by his own aggressive behavior or the refusal Gaara gave. The pain from Gaara trumped his own feelings. He sat down onto a pair of lap. Arms wrapped around his waist and made him lean back against a firm chest. "What happened to the shy guy I used to know?"

"You couldn't expect me to be after that kiss." Gaara tap Neji's forehead and the boy lean his head back so that Gaara can more easily rest his head on Gaara's shoulder. "To get to know each other better, I would like to ask you a question."

"Okay."

"Why are you so eager to get into bed with me?" It was a serious question, but the smirk Neji felt against the curve of his neck annoyed him. "Most people would consider if these feelings are legitimate, if the person they are with are worth the risk. You know, all the usuals."

Neji shrugged. "I guess I've never really thought about it."

At this, Gaara lean his head forward to look at Neji. "But you must've thought about it at some point."

"Well, considering the amount of time (not that much) I've known you and my experience (even less), I don't think I should judge you on every little thing and only lessen my trust when you've actually done something to deserve it." Neji frown at his own answer. "Maybe I'm being naïve, but if people enjoy their relationship more and stop trying to decipher the future with that person, things would work out more."

"…minus the playboys, sex addicts, and immature people."

"Of course."

* * *

Neji arrived home before Sasuke. In doing so, he was the first to see Sasuke sulking throough the front door. His cousin fisted his hands and made an angry sound. He might've punched the vase, but he collected his composure. The composure dissolved into anger again as his cousin's thoughts seem to have jump back to whatever it is that was so displeasing to him. "Bad date?"

"It was the worst date ever."

"Compare to what?" As far as Neji knew, Sasuke never dated anyone before.

"Not the point!" Sasuke sat down before getting back up in a huff of anger. He paced back and forth across the floor, refusing to think about the date, but thinking about it, anyway. After moments of which Sasuke made angry noises and curses at no one, he finally decided to tell Neji.

Meanwhile outside of their window, two pair of eyes watched them. One figure of a man seated against the trunk and branch of the tree. The other chose to lean against the trunk in a disapproving manner. The branches and dark night did well to hide them from any watchful eye, but their occasional movement exposed them to the light to show blond and red hairs.

"I thought the date went by fine," replied the seated one.

Inside, Sasuke was speaking with a growl in every tone. "It was like avoiding the plague! Our hands accidentally, ACCIDENTALLY touched and he pulled it back as if I had bitten him. Oh, and other times," at this, Sasuke sprung toward his cousin, grabbed his shoulders, and shoved his own face towards Neji's. "He was this close. I mean, what is his problem?"

Neji touch his shoulder gingerly when Sasuke let go. He allowed his demented cousin to voice every complaint before replying, but there was little in his reply for he didn't have enough experience himself to give any real advice.

"Okay, there were those incidences, but he must know how hard it just to be near him. I wish he had bitted me; that would've given me the chance to bite back."

"I see you and I have the same problem."

Naruto's ears perked up at this. "Really?"

"I find small touches and lots of cuddling help." Gaara frown at his companion's muffled laughs.

"You? Cuddle? The most I've seen you cuddle with is an anaconda."

Gaara sighed at Naruto's immaturity and with full intentions, he nudged the blond and Naruto tipped over. It was a small joy for him. There was no sound of Naruto hitting the floor. He, merely, reappeared right back where he sat. Not intending to dwell on Naruto's complaints, he asked, "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Libido," he answered sarcastically. "You?" Silence was his answer. "Do you not know your answer, or is this your way of telling me how much of a douche you are?"

Naruto didn't bother trying to drag anything out of Gaara; besides, his mind was elsewhere. He was thinking up many answers as to why Gaara seems to pay interest to this family. His aura lingers here, even after he has left, meaning he has been here too many times to allow it to fully dissipate. Naruto knew of the attraction between Gaara and Neji, but it wasn't the only reason Gaara stays here too long. Gaara could easily pursue Neji to leave. And not to mention a strange force seems to reside in this family, though not on the girl. There were many instances he found Sasuke prying in his mind and the other two searching through him.

"I could push you over again if that would answer my question."

He didn't hide the fact that he wasn't listening, but he found it more productive to not ask for a repeat of the question. It wasn't in Naruto's nature to bother with conversations that did not benefit him, so he was very observant of Gaara when he said, "Seeing as you've been here much longer than I, I would assume you already know of these three's powers."

Gaara's face cool and mask itself into icy expressionless.

He smiled. Gaara always thought it protected him from others knowing of his emotions and sometimes it did, but then again, why would he need to hide anything if the question wasn't true.

"Are you going to report this?"

Then again, it isn't fun when the culprit doesn't even deny the accusation.

"No. When have I ever reported anything?" They watched in silence till Naruto could not bear to hold in any more questions. "So, what happened to them?"

Gaara did not seem incline to answer.

"You cursed them?" Naruto had done his research. He found all male members of the Uchiha/Hyuuga family had died before they reach the age of nineteen. This was too much to be left to coincidences. Of course, Gaara didn't seem like the type of curse people. He rather much kill them for the quick satisfaction of it.

"No. But I thought someone else might've, but I couldn't find any spells on them." Gaara looked at Naruto, who return to him a similar one. Either there wasn't any spells to find in the first place, or the curse was cast by a powerful demon of higher rank than them.

"I don't think so. I mean, any higher and we'll have to go up there," Naruto pointed towards the sky. "But those assholes never come down here, much less curse people. Still, I'm surprise you favored anyone so highly to gift all future generations." Naruto stretched as a pretense to look at Gaara. He threw the latter comment out there to test the water, so to speak, but to his disappointment, Gaara didn't deny this one either. _'No fun as ever.'_ Naruto could trace Sasuke's family tree to figure out who received the first gift, but Gaara didn't like anyone knowing about that person… Naruto wince at the thought of what would happen to him if the red head knew how far Naruto's research took him. Sure, with time everything would grow back as it should, but it isn't the point.

With Gaara's attention on Neji, Naruto eye the carved word on Gaara's forehead. He remembers the year the red head came home with it. What a disturbance it caused. Everyone thought the opponent must've been such a warrior to have injured _the_ Gaara, to have made him bleed. Even during the Great Battle, Gaara came out with only scratches. It was decades before he ventured back onto earth, which was very strange considering how much time he seems to spend there. Naruto didn't know the details then, but how obvious for the wound to be carved love.

"You can check the archive and I can check the black market for anyone buying curse spells."

Naruto nearly fell out of the tree again. "The archive? Why do I have to go there? That place is dangerous."

"You're wanted, for dead or alive, in the black market, remember?"

"One little bomb and I'm banned for life? That is not fair."

"I think it was because you stole half of the items there."

"You bought most of them," muttered Naruto, focusing his attention on the room before him. Neji left and into the next. He pulled a book from his backpack and began reading it. Naruto would've perfered to watch Sasuke instead, if the book's title didn't catch his attention. "Umm…isn't that your…?"

"Yes." Gaara didn't elaborate on the subject, choosing to switch to the curse instead. "I know it started before the 1800s. You can start from there."

Naruto grumbled more complaints till Gaara left. He didn't object, because solving this helps Sasuke. Although, if Sasuke does die, he would make a nice demon, or angel. Naruto stayed there until Sasuke went to sleep, but he watched as much as would allow, imagined Sasuke with wings and sighed.

* * *

No one notice when a figure with red hair came down from the sky and landed on the ledge of a window. His feet slowly touched the ground as he smell a metallic scent mixed in the freshen room. He walked past the screen door with caution; his right hand glows a dark black. The alarm hadn't sounded and the door was locked. The couch and TV is where it should be. Yesterday's newspapers stacked neatly on the coffee table. Everything was in order, except for the trail of blood. It was fresh, but the trail had started ambiguously from the middle of his living room and dripped down the hall. The only scenario he could think of is if someone climbed into his home through the window, stabbed themselves in his living room then ran off to his bathroom.

The spell still glowed in his hand. He waves his other hand over his bedroom and any other places a criminal could hide as he made his way to his bathroom. He couldn't identify who it was. All he heard was water running and the scattering of objects. He was about to kick open his door and blast away when a voice said, "It's me." He didn't let his guard down till he saw Naruto's bloody form leaning against the sink.

"She stabbed me! That crazy bitch stabbed me!" Naruto cried as he bandaged himself with one hand. The wound wasn't visible, but judging by the red bandages, the gash ran from his arm to his elbow. Another deep cut ran from the middle of his chest to the side of his stomach. The blood continued to spill despite the bandages.

"Tch." Gaara glared at Naruto's wounds to his carpet.

Naruto saw the glare and gave him an incredulous look. "Oh to hell, it's not as if I'm hemorrhaging on your carpet because it's so fun. But of course, this doesn't make sense to you, you OCD freak, who can't even hatch out of an egg without hand sanitizer and a Mr. Clean magic eraser. Yes, losing blood is wicked awesome. Why bother with narcotics when you can get the free human rainbow exhibit, which comes in four varying colors: pale, green, purple, and dead because you ain't got no blood anymore, sucker! You know how to get this beautiful effect? By going to a place you're not allowed to and having yourself repeatedly stabbed by a psychotic, pink-hair—not even a natural hair color, by the way—librarian, who is very serious about those overdue books and an insulting comment you don't even remember!"

Not being able to stand it anymore, Gaara ripped the bloody bandages from around Naruto's stomach before Naruto finished yelling to inquire what he was doing and grabbed a yellow jar from a cabinet above. He grabbed the green salve inside the jar with two of his fingers and worked on the wound. It wasn't out of compassion, rather because of how the blood no longer streamed from the wounds. It _squirted_.

"Ow! You don't have to stick your whole finger in it."

He paused in his work and said, "That's what she said."

"Oh, now you're a comedian," cried Naruto, annoyed.

Once Naruto was all cleaned up, he went out to the couch. His blood had already disappeared from the carpet, courtesy of Gaara. He sat down and tried to relax as the simple movement caused him pain.

Gaara placed a drink in front of him before taking a seat in a nearby chair. He had his own cup in hand and took a sip from it then asked Naruto what happened.

"Sakura."

"She still holds a grudge from last time."

"No shit, Sherlock," said Naruto, angrily. He had been looking for some documents on who was registered for high level curse spells when Sakura approached him, smiling. He knew he was in for trouble, but he had been expecting a castration spell or something magical, not an ordinary, human-object knife. She managed to slice him twice before he sent her ass to a volcano.

"That'll work wonders for her temper."

"Hey, moment of instinct." He frowned at his wounds. "She must've put a spell on the knife. This is taking too long to heal."

"Hmm." Gaara took another sip. "You should've bound her, or at least apologize."

Naruto pointed at his wounds as if it was invisible to Gaara. "She stuck me before I could say anything. But sure, I'll try to remember that when I'm not busy fighting for my life."

"She might come up here to look for you."

The blond's blue eyes opened wide in surprise. He hadn't thought of that. "You think she would?"

"I would." Gaara ignored Naruto's cries about the she-devil. "Did you find anything?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend's indifference. "I trust you know the task you gave me is impossible."

"Yes. And?"

"From what I've found," Naruto added a bastard in there. "All of the high-level demons' alibis during the activation of the curse checked out."

"How do you know?" Gaara didn't bother to ask Naruto how he knew which year to check for those alibis. After all, the Uchiha/Hyuuga family's strange deaths started after he came home.

"Excluding the fact that half of them don't know you, most of them were dead, three imprisoned, and the rest were at the annual Hellfire Ball, which I hosted. I had placed a spell around my house to make a memo of who left and who came. It makes a good security alarm. What about you?"

Gaara didn't answer, in his usual douche-bag way. He threw his cup onto the table. It slid and landed perfectly on the table. He closed his eyes and ponder angrily of who could have cursed his Neji. He didn't like the idea of anything filthy running through the precious blood of his love. The TV frizzled and popped as his mind continues to run on a mad course.

Naruto didn't stop him. He would do the same thing too if he didn't think one of them should be in control. _'Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.'_ Sasuke in leather. _'Oh, dirty thoughts.'_

"We'll have to keep a close eye on Itachi. He's birthday is in a few days."

"Oh, are we getting him a present? I love birthday parties." Naruto's eyes gleamed with excitement. He was serious.

"He's dying, you fool."

"Yeah, but that shouldn't ruin a good party."

* * *

Sasuke stuck his head through the small opening to the door. He glances around the room, at the dark yellow sheets of the bed heavily draped with matching curtains, the polished oak drawers lined up in neat rows against one side of the wall to hold various ornaments that has no other meaning than to be decorative, the black coal cooling safely behind the cage of the chimney, the wall of windows overlooking the wondrous garden, which was designed with great care for a symmetrical and plentiful—.

"Can I help you?"

The voice shook him out of his observation and gave him a slight embarrassment. Sasuke shook his head and closed the door as he removed himself.

Neji watched the door with the caution of a ninja. He expected for it to be open a second time and if possible, followed by a relevant answer. The door didn't dare budge and its knob remained still. Shaking his head at its ridiculousness, he went back to his work and had not begun writing again when the door swung open in a fluid motion. "Yes?" he answered, strain.

Sasuke hum and uh while leaning against the doorway; his hand swung the door back and forth, hoping it can swing the answer from him in return. No such luck. "Has Gaara called you? During these last two days?" he finally asked.

Caution turned into skepticism for Neji cannot have his mind comprehend what Sasuke is asking him. "Gaara?"

His cousin nodded.

"You want to know if Gaara called me?" Neji repeated, to make sure he heard everything correctly.

Again, he nodded.

Without any other possible explanation, Neji asked, "Do you like Gaara?" The question sounded so strange to him, he couldn't will himself to be mad.

"No! Oh God, no." Sasuke shuddered at the thought of being with Gaara. He would be hooked and gutted like a fish.

"Then, why?" Upon asking, Neji immediately came to his own conclusion. "Is it Naruto?"

Hearing the name caused Sasuke to tense and the vein on his forehead to beat angrily. "Sort of."

Neji sighed and closed his notebook. He wasn't going to finish his work with Sasuke being the way he is. Sometimes his cousin could be more sensitive than he lets on. "Maybe he's really busy with work. Only two days have passed."

"If things had ended on easier terms, I wouldn't be…dwelling, but he could hardly bring himself to touch me. I thought if two people were dating, they could hold hands, if not kiss, except nothing happened. And I was, am confused, because he acted just fine in the beginning. You know, not too shy, not too perverse. I don't know what went wrong." The smirk on Neji's face made him add, "And I am not acting like a girl. It is only the proper manner of things."

It was partially what made Neji smirk, but honestly, he thought it would take more coaxing to make Sasuke confess his frustration. Obviously, Sasuke has been thinking about this a lot and holding everything in. "To make sure we are clear on this, I have as much experience as you do, but I would suggest calling him."

"But I wouldn't want to be pushy, or make him think of me as a potential stalker."

"You two are dating. There is nothing wrong with calling him after two days of no contact. Only don't be like Mellie from Tears Running to Nowhere. Remember that episode?"

"Oh, yes. She was horrible."

* * *

Naruto lifted the bandages to see the happenings of his wounds. The green salve peeked out from the flesh and told him no. Sighing, he left it alone, only to look at it again a few minutes later. It wasn't a simple spell placed on him, but a curse she bought on the black market. If he hadn't been who he was, he would've been dead instead of suffering from these cuts. Of course, knowing her, she probably knew this would happen and had been saving it up for him. Sensing a familiar presence in the room, he asked, "Did you find it?"

Gaara flipped to a specific page in the crumbly book and set it down onto the table. "It might work."

"Might?"

Without replying, Gaara placed one hand above Naruto's stomach and the other on his arm. His hands gripped in the air and pulled the spell from within the wounds. The spell swirled in two purple circle of incantations, all connected to the wounds by thin strands of thread. "I could just cut it."

"What? No, are you insane? All good that will do is make me bleed more."

"Not on my couch."

"Oh yes. Surely if it becomes such a problem, you can just let me bleed outside." The agreeable look on Gaara's face told the blond he had thought of it already.

"You owe me for the medicine. It wasn't cheap."

Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend's antic. "What is this dispelling going to cost me then?"

"Recludere," commanded Gaara and ignoring Naruto. His fingers moved like spider legs, weaving up the spell slowly so that it curled and encircled each of his fingers. The spell changed from purple to a dull brown as they disbanded. Gaara suddenly stopped, because one of the strands refused to budge. Testing, he gave it a light tug.

"Ow! Watch it." Naruto glared at the stubborn strand. "That woman, she must've been prepared for this."

"A protection spell over a curse. Brilliant," said Gaara, who appeared to admire the work.

"I'm glad you're having so much fun. Ugh, I knew I should've done this myself."

"The host performing a removal charm might've caused negative consequences." To be sure, Gaara tugged at the strand. Instantly, the thread connecting the spell and wounds sprouted into multiple spells and began weaving themselves into a thicker and stronger curse. It nearly completed, except Gaara's magic interfered and it then focused on attacking him. Gaara disconnected his magic from the curse and jumped back. His hands glowed red as the curse weaved itself into a giant monster.

Naruto look from the monster hovering above to its tail attached to the spell in his body. It looked like an evil, purple genie from Aladdin. He laid there, looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Great."

* * *

"Why are we going to Gaara's home again?" asked Sasuke.

"If you had Naruto's number, we wouldn't need to go."

"But why not to Kiba then?"

Neji mention a small vision he had of Naruto being at Gaara's home. And he didn't bother with Kiba, because Itachi went there this morning to visit Hinata and Kiba. It had seemed like an important and private get-together for them and Neji didn't want to interrupt them.

"I hope Hinata doesn't have boys."

Neji looked in surprise at his cousin, but agreed, nonetheless.

"How did you know where Gaara lived?" Sasuke asked, changing the subject.

"He gave me his address a few days back." Neji knew by the look on Sasuke's face to tell what he was thinking. If Gaara gave him his address, surely there would've been a phone number, but Neji thought a face-to-face for Sasuke was more productive and would cause his cousin to stop sulking in his, Neji's, room. There is also the con of his meeting going bad.

Arriving at the apartment complex, Neji felt a sense of shyness coming over him. He wonders at the sight of Gaara's home and his room. He's been to other people's house before, but maybe his anxiety was from the first time of going to a boyfriend's home. They approached the door marked 106A; each nervous for their own reasons. Just as Neji was about to knock, something crashed from inside. Neji and Sasuke exchanged looks then both leaned their heads toward the door.

* * *

"Oh for goodness sake, be a man!" Naruto shouted to Gaara, who was tied up head to toe in binding spells.

Gaara glared at him, but had no reproach. He burned through the bindings only to have the monster tied his hands with vine-like magic. He ripped them apart and made a move to get closer then duck from the shots fired at him.

"Even my grandma can fight better than this and she's decayed!"

"I really don't need your encouragements right now."

"Well, if you were stronger, we wouldn't be in this mess." Naruto gestured to the thick strands of binding spells wrapping him up like a cocoon. _'I'm a freaking' taco.' _The curse had immobilize his body, however he could blast through them and dissolve the curse along with it if he knew it wasn't going to blast a giant hole through all four walls. It would be a tough one to explain.

A thin, spell bound sword appeared in Gaara's hands and he used it to slash through the spells. It would seem he has the upper hand when the spell activated again and transformed the monster more powerfully. Eyeing the monster, his glance aimed down at the host. '_That's one way to destroy the curse._'

Naruto saw what he was thinking and immediately exclaimed, "Don't you dare stab me, you demon from hell! I will slice and dice your ass like an onion!" He made an effort to scoot away, but it just made him look like he was bugging his eyes out.

Gaara ignored Naruto's cries and brought his sword up to eye level. He made several gestures and appeared to be writing on it to make it glow a deep, dark green. The monster knew what he was doing and tried to stop him by firing continuous shots of spells at him, but to no avail. Naruto screamed as Gaara flew upward, stabbed the monster through the head while using the ceiling to propel himself down, bringing the sword slicing thru the monster's body and finally cracking and breaking the curse.

Blue eyes gave a long meaningful look at the sword centimeters away from his face then to its owner, who got off the couch and sheath his sword into an invisible scabbard. Naruto remained on the couch, letting out a breath he hadn't known he been holding in.

Through the wall of the door, a voice whispered, "Maybe we should come back."

Naruto sat up, alerted by the voice while Gaara quickly went to the door. He was bewildered by Gaara's eagerness to open the door without realizing how long those two could've possibly stood out there. He waved a hand at the TV and pretended everything was normal.

Neji was awkward at the door and he looked to Sasuke for support, but received little. "Um…hi."

"Hi. You want to come in?" Gaara was very polite and very ignorant of what was going through Neji and Sasuke's mind.

"We were…we're not interrupting anything, are we? B-Because we heard…stuff…some screaming, so…."

Gaara swiveled his head to Naruto. His face spoke calm and peace, but inside, he was a tornado.

Naruto waved the controller in his hand for all to see. "Oh, we were just playing some video games. Nothing big."

Neji and Sasuke walked in to see an Xbox and games lining the floor. Now it makes sense, especially the two large speakers on either side of the television.

"Must have been one intense game," said Neji.

"Yeah, it was. It almost seem like there was a real monster in the room." Naruto smile at Sasuke, hoping the joke would've made him smile too and Sasuke almost did.

But he looked away and refused to meet Naruto's eyes.

Naruto frown at the action, but said nothing on it. He didn't want to call out Sasuke's actions in front of other people. He gathered Neji wasn't here for a social call with him. On that thought, Neji said loudly that he came over to see if Gaara would hang out with him today. Sasuke reluctantly let his cousin go and remained here with Naruto. Once they were gone, a quiet awkwardness came over the room.

To be polite, Naruto stood up and offer Sasuke something to drink.

"Fuck, what happened to your chest? And your arm!" exclaimed Sasuke as he ran over to Naruto. His hands stay far from the bandages, because he didn't want to accidentally touch it and cause Naruto pain.

Laughing lightheartedly, Naruto said, "That's the first time I heard you say fuck. It's kind of hot."

Sasuke ignored the flirt and demanded Naruto to be seated. "What happened to you? Are you alright?"

Despite how wrong it is, Naruto couldn't help enjoying Sasuke's worried fuss and fake a wince. He regretted faking it quickly, because Sasuke retracted his touch. Again, Sasuke asked what happened. "Well, there was this panda. It was angry. I was there. Next thing I knew, I was in a hospital. After they discharged me, Gaara offered to let me stay here until I was better, or able to make my own food without bleeding to death. Either one."

"A panda?"

"Yeah, I work at a zoo."

"You work at a zoo?"

"Part-time. I'm sorry I haven't called. I've been so drugged up the last two days; I didn't even know my own name."

Upong hearing him say that, Sasuke felt so much shame. In the past two days, he was angry at Naruto for not calling; and for all he knew, the blond could've been dead. He hated himself for having been so immature and naïve. He was startled out of these thoughts by a hard tap on his forehead.

"Hey, whatever you're thinking to make that kind of face, stop it."

Sasuke shook his head and looks away, but Naruto would not have it. He gently grabs Sasuke's face towards him. "If you're going to insist on being that way, should I kiss you to make it all better?" Naruto grinned at his own brilliance when he saw the pale face redden. "But personally, I think I need to be the one made better," he said and moved in for a kiss, only to have a pillow shoved into his face. He grabbed the pillow away from his face and saw Sasuke's retreating back.

"Are you hungry? I'll make you something," Sasuke said quickly before hiding himself in the kitchen.

* * *

**A/N:**

Ta-da, my computer got fixed! My documents were erased, like all of them. I felt as if a part of myself died. Well, let me not get too dramatic. True story. A bug crawled into my PC, slipped itself into the hard drive and died. F my life. But hey, now I have a brand new PC that is better than ever.

Then Psychic Ambition would have a very big cliffhanger for a very long time. Like forever.

After my computer was fixed, my internet stopped working. It's like you don't pay your electricity bill and they shut it off. Rude, right? This just ruined my dishes at Cafeworld and my pet probably ran away because there's no more food. My fishes are dead and the crops are withered. Now I'm never gonna get my puppy in Farmville. But I did get to watch two episodes of True Blood before anything else happened. There is a lot of banging in there. I had to use head phones, because people walk by my window and if I can hear them, they can certainly hear whatever it is that is playing on my speaker. And I think they know it's me. (O.o)

Moving on….

The kissing scene between Gaara and Neji was actually supposed to be for Sasuke and Naruto. I did write that scene in the original chapter, but then it got deleted and I don't like rewriting things so I just put Gaara and Neji in there instead.

Regarding Sasuke and Itachi's age, yes, they are less than a year apart. I haven't really thought of the reason why for this. In my head, I thought 'might as well.' But for you romantics out there, here is the story. Itachi came along because of an arranged marriage between the mother and father. In this day and time, how can this happen? You're a boy going through puberty with impending death looming over your head and here is a pretty girl willing to marry you. Even if there was objection, it wouldn't do her any good so she might as well not worry about it, right? Then they fall in love because of their bond over baby Itachi and have another baby, Sasuke right afterwards.

Synaxis told me that some (SOME – do not send me reviews saying nah uh) FF are more interesting in yoai than their counterparts. I guess because it's the new thing, like black was the new red. Not too many relationships are working out, anyway. Even one of my favorite actors, David Boreanaz, cheated on his wife. I went down on one knee and shouted, "WHHHHY?" If you want excitement, go jump out of an airplane. With or without the parachute. You know, whichever way you like to swing it. Or pretend she's not your wife and have an affair with her.

I forgot if I mentioned this. It was about my being bored and hating on almost all of the shoujo mangas. I've read TCP (Tokyo Crazy Paradise) and I didn't really like it. That's my bad taste. And Elite Assassin commented on my blog about Aizen's hair. It is so true about him being an insecure nerd. He tosses his glasses and slink back his hair? Wow. Such a dramatic change. What does that say about you? You aren't blind and have super-enhanced grease hair.

Neji's mention of Mellie from Tears Running to Nowhere is a made-up, soap opera. It's not real so do not go searching for it on Google. I'm serious. You'll come up with some emo songs, but that's about it.

**Narra:** I'm just a forgotten figment of your imagination, aren't I?

Oh, let me introduce to everyone. This here is Narra 2.0.

**Narra:** No, I'm not.

Yes, you are.

**Narra 2.0:** Hey! Putting a two in front of my name does not make me Narra 2.0.

Narra, the first, died two weeks ago at the same time my chapter 7 was published. He lived a good…two year?

**Narra 2.0:** I'm really invisible, aren't I?

And thank you, Narra, for being with us all this time.

**Narra 2.0:** …hello?


	11. Chapter 9

I have been so busy with school. I'm currently learning Japanese, which is awesome for when I go to Japan two years from now or whenever. And I started writing a comic. . Kyaaaa! Ever since I learned Japanese, I keep laughing at all the nya and kya the anime girls do. The sound effects are hilarious. Have you guys seen Arashi ni Shiygare something? I spelled that wrong. But yes, that tv show made me sound like I was dying. I could not stop laughing. And I've come upon this Naruto blog. My story was rated...well, it was bad. Not this story, but another story. I couldn't be mad since all his other reviews funny enough to make me laugh. Oh boy, I keep talking about laughing. Well, yeah, school has been keeping me. I haven't thought about the time or writing this until someone sent in a message promising ramen. I have your username and will hold you to it. ;D

Chapter 9

* * *

"Naruto?"

"Hmm?'

"I don't want to."

'Why not?" Naruto knew the answer to his question perfectly, but chose to put on an innocent face to make Sasuke squirm. And squirm, he did.

"I-It's embarrassing."

"Come on. If you were slashed on the stomach by a big, mother panda, I would help you out too."

"B-But…but…"

"…argh!"

"What's wrong?"

"The pain! The doctor said I needed plenty of food and rest, but that stupid Gaara hasn't been as cooperative as you would think. And then you came and I thought I would be able to…argh! But don't worry. I'll manage somehow. Let's just hope my stitches don't open again."

"Okay, okay. Stop trying to get back up."

Naruto lay back down and opened his mouth with a smile. "Ahhh."

Sasuke gingerly lifted the spoon and brought it up to Naruto's lips. As the blond ate, Sasuke tried not to think about why he was so embarrassed. It was only spoon feeding someone. He's done it to Neji, when the boy was sick and Itachi had been out of town, and even to Kiba, when he had been drunk. He tried not to think about the spoon being in Naruto's mouth. At least, not too much.

"So I've wondering, why are you friends with Kiba?"

Sasuke didn't know how to answer that. He shrugged and replied, "We just are. We grew up together and he's always been….nice." Nice was an understatement of what Kiba really is. The boy is a natural pushover.

"And now he's marrying your cousin?"

"Yes. Why are you suddenly asking this?" As far as Sasuke knew, Kiba and Naruto are merely classmates.

"You two don't exactly seem to be the type of be friends. Acquaintances, maybe, or a friend of a betrayed friend."

"Betrayed friend?" Sasuke quirked a curious eyebrow.

"Yeah, I was watching this anime about ninjas."

"Right." Sasuke delivered another spoonful into Naruto's mouth. He was getting the hang of this and his girly emotions have died down.

"Were you ever in love with him?"

If the spoon had been a knife, Naruto would've been poked. Sasuke considered the question carefully before answering. He couldn't understand why Naruto would ask him that. In love with Kiba? Was the blond joking? "No. We're only friends."

"Hmm." Naruto thought about the answer then asked, "Did he ever try to kiss you?"

"What? Ew. No. Why are you asking so many weird questions today?"

"No reason," Naruto said between mid-bites.

Except Sasuke knew there was a reason and he dreaded to know what it was when Naruto finished swallowing.

"Just that…you don't have many friends and he being the only one, I thought there must've been times growing up that you were curious about each other."

That made things more confusing for Sasuke. "If we were curious about each other, we would've just asked."

Naruto made a face, possibly irritated by Sasuke's lack of understanding. "About your body?"

Sasuke dropped the spoon into the bowl with a surprise. "Are you suggesting we touched each other? My god, are you sick? I've never even kissed anyone before." Sasuke watched as Naruto's face pan out into a shocked, emotionless mask before the blond sat up in surprise, only to fall back into the couch with pain. Sasuke didn't know what to do so he patted Naruto's arm awkwardly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said nonchalantly. "So what you're saying is I'm your first boyfriend? You've never been on a date with anyone? Girl or guy?"

"I've been on lots of dates," Sasuke said, a little annoyed for some reason.

"Well, excluding the weird ones you meet with your brother…"

"Umm…" Sasuke found to his shock that he hasn't been on a real date with anyone before. Sure, girls asked him out, but it was hard to get to know her when all he saw in her mind was him ravaging her. Or the other way around. The reason he got along with Kiba is because of his honest/pure mind. There were thoughts about beating him up on occasion, but Sasuke had deserved them and found them amusing rather than threatening. Yeah. Naruto would be his first…ever. "I guess so."

"Seriously?"

Sasuke nodded his head in a care-free manner. So he was scared out of his mind when Naruto screamed to hell. "What? Are you in pain?" Except Naruto was gripping his head, not his stomach. Could there be something wrong with his mind? Well, he is mumbling to himself.

"I knew there was something not quite right. No wonder you were so entrancing."

"Entrancing?"

As if remembering he was here, Naruto reaches out casually and strokes the side of Sasuke's face. "Yes, very much." Naruto set the bowl aside and pull Sasuke down towards him. He kissed those lips lightly, so as not to scare the inexperience boy away, and during the middle of this, he held Sasuke closer to his body, but Sasuke suddenly resisted and pulled away.

"Wait, wait, your wounds," Sasuke said, keeping weight off of Naruto.

Naruto barely gave it a second thought and flipped himself over on to Sasuke. "Now there are no worries," he said before resuming the kiss. This time, he intensified the kiss after finding Sasuke's resistance was not because he didn't want to.

Sasuke was keeping up as much he can, but actually doing something you've only seen on TV was much harder than it looked. Naruto, on the other hand, neither cared nor noticed the sloppy kisses he was receiving. His senses were overloading with Sasuke's essence and beneath it, he can feel the throbbing soul yearning for him. As a demon, lust is supposed to be the only thing that was simple to him. And he felt it. But with Sasuke, another strong feeling arose. It overlapped with his lusts and intertwined. The feelings fought, trying to dominate and let itself be ruled by the other. Naruto licked and sucked those lips and received beautiful moans of gratitude. He was satisfied with this, just kissing, and yet this action crushed his judgment. His control slipped by waves until his demonic fangs protruded from their hiding place. Luckily, Sasuke didn't notice. He, too, was caught up by the feelings rushing over him. The lips kissing him moved to latch onto his neck.

His fangs descended to Sasuke's neck. He knew what he was going to do; he needed to bite. His body ached for it and Sasuke would belong to him. Whether Sasuke wanted to or not. Naruto had less than a few seconds to remember why it would be wrong to before the front door swung open. The interruption caused Sasuke to instinctively push himself away and stopped any lusty feelings from completing its fruition. Sasuke didn't dare look at anyone. He quickly sat up and adjusted his shirt, which had been unbuttoned, he didn't know when, during their activity.

Naruto snapped his head around to glare at Gaara, who had wisely covered Neji's eyes before the door fully opened. Because if not, Neji would've seen Naruto's eyes pulsing red and snarling his fangs at them. Gaara's nails darken into black. Just a precaution. The red head wasn't sure if Naruto knew who he was at this point. He didn't say anything; not wanting to cause any unnesscary panic for Sasuke and Neji, but also unprepared if his saying something would cause Naruto to spring into an attack.

"Sorry about that," Sasuke apologized.

Neji was quiet. If there was any indecency, he was okay with Gaara covering his eyes. But Sasuke's voice woke Naruto from the trance he was in. His eyes returned to their blue state and everything returned to human form.

"Neji, Sasuke, you two should probably go," said Gaara, removing his hand from Neji's face.

"Why?" snapped Naruto. His appearance remained normal, but the angry aura around him increased. "They can stay if they want."

"No, I should go."

The anger disappeared from Naruto as he turned towards Sasuke. "Ok. If that's what you want. When are you coming back?"

Sasuke blushed at the pleading look Naruto gave him and replied to him with a 'maybe tomorrow.' "Ah, thank you for letting me stay, Gaara-san. Have a good night," Sasuke said. Neji allowed himself to be drag out, but not before waving a confused good-bye at Gaara.

Gaara closed the door and imagined everything to be over, however when he turned back around, he was met with Naruto's demonic face. "You're welcome."

* * *

"Nii-san," Sasuke greeted as soon as he opened the door. "When did you get back?"

"Just now. Kiba and Hinata said hi," Itachi said, not looking up from his paperwork.

"Oh." Sasuke didn't inquire about his brother's meeting with the couple. Kiba is like family to them and he is Sasuke's childhood friend, but they had all been against him marrying Hinata, especially Neji, but Neji has issues. They were completely sure if Kiba fully understand the consequences of what he was dealing with. But Kiba had proven himself. Sasuke was stung to find the full extent of Kiba's commitment and how deeply he had thought about it all these years. Hinata was the same as Kiba. She knew the family has been trying to find ways to break the curse and there were chances Neji, Itachi and Sasuke himself won't be the ones to do so. She promised her children would, that she wasn't going to let her family suffer. Hinata is mature to know her own decisions. She and Kiba made that clear. How to argue that, indeed?

Itachi interrupted Sasuke's inner thoughts with, "How did your meeting with Naruto-san go?"

Sasuke stop in the midst of taking off his jacket. "How did you know about that?"

"After sulking for two days, I figure you would've gone to him for an explanation."

"I was not sulking."

"Were too," said Neji, who pushed past Sasuke's intruding figure aside to get inside.

"What about you? What were you up to with Gaara-san?" retorted Sasuke.

"We went for a walk."

"Oh? Is that all you did?" teased Sasuke, jabbing Neji in the side with his elbow.

Neji gave his cousin a blank stare before replying, "Sasuke, don't be a pervert." Then he retreated into his room whilst Sasuke yelled obscene things.

Sasuke huffed his way to his brother's side. "Can you believe—?" He stopped mid-question, because where his brother had been was this big empty space. Seconds later, he heard a door from upstairs being closed. "Everybody's mean," he mumbled, annoyed.

* * *

Naruto paced the floor then sat down to fidget and go up to pace again. He did this for a while, wringing his hand and frowning with deep thought. Or not so deep. After Sasuke left, he couldn't bring himself to calm down. He wanted to go to Sasuke, touch him, mark him, take care of him, everything! His breaths came in shallow, rapid paces.

"Will you sit down? You're giving me a headache."

Unable to control himself, he fired destructive spells at Gaara, who merely absorbed it into a black sphere from his hand. Naruto groan in pain and drop himself into a chair. "Sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"It's your first time finding a mate?" asked Gaara.

"What? Mate?"

Gaara narrowed his eyes in irritation. "What is your grimoire there for? Decoration? A mate is someone you—."

"I know what a mate is!" Naruto clutched the arm seat. His hand sparked and fire sprung from underneath his palm.

"Please stop destroying my furniture."

Naruto looked at his hand in surprise, quelled the fire, and restored the chair to its original form. "Argh! I didn't know it was supposed to be like this." Then seeing Gaara's composure, he asked, "How come you aren't like this?"

"It's easier to control oneself the second time around."

Naruto's brain went into overdrive over that and he sat up from the chair in anger. "You sure you didn't curse them?"

"Stop dripping acid onto the floor."

"Huh?" He brought his hands to eye level and saw the green smoke spawning from them. He shook his hands and it disappeared. "My bad."

"You're clearly not controlling yourself without Sasuke."

"Clearly," he repeated sarcastically. Suddenly, he brightened up. "So I should go find him?"

"That would be bad. He doesn't know you're a demon. What happens when your eyes start glowing in the dark?"

Naruto sighed and leaned heavily into the chair. "Damn it. What am I suppose to do then? I'm going crazy."

"Maybe it would be a good idea for you to return home. Your wounds have already healed."

"No." The blond glared at him for even thinking about that. It's not as if home was such a bad place. Heck, who are we kidding? It's Hell. His main reason was leaving Sasuke behind. With Itachi's approaching birthday, the demon responsible for the curse could up any day now. And Gaara was more concern for Neji's safety so he'll protect Neji and Itachi, but Sasuke wouldn't stand a chance. He couldn't leave. What he needed to do now was find the demon first before he contacts Itachi, but Gaara has always been tight lip about his past with them. Even if they were "friends," Gaara wouldn't tell him anything. "You know I can find whoever cursed them."

Gaara glance at Naruto's serious look. Yes, he knew. Naruto has connections everywhere and lots of demons owed him favors they didn't want to owe. And Gaara knew by keeping his mouth shut he was toying with Neji's life line, but he's never spoken about what happened to anyone. Neji, though understanding and kind, is still too young to handle the _burden_ Gaara holds. Not too many humans are capable of comprehending truths. Sure, they understand. Naruto would find out who. Even without his connection, there is that spell in the blond's own grimoire. "Alright. However, this doesn't count as a favor."

Naruto balked at him, but doesn't counter with anything. After all, Sasuke's life is on the life too. He held out a hand. "Shall we then?"

The red head eye the hand warily. "…did you wash that?"

"…"

* * *

Neji was on his bed, reading through the grimoire when Sasuke walked into his room. He hopes his cousin wasn't sulking again. They were family, but it was still annoying. Sasuke moved at a steady pace and sat down on his bed across from him. He didn't say anything, prompting Neji to start the conversation. "What?"

"Do you think nii-san has been acting weird?"

"You mean, besides him dying?"

"I'm serious."

"So am I," Neji said, tensely. He flipped the pages more forcefully than he intended to.

"Oh. So you've been thinking about it too?" Sasuke sighed and flopped onto his back. He sat back up, frustrated. "What are we suppose to do?"

"This." Neji turned the book around for Sasuke to see.

Sasuke saw the picture of a young man, maybe around mid-to-late twenty. The man had neat black hair and dark eyes. He was dressed in what seems to be the 17th century fashion. A hint of a playful smile was on his lips, as if catching a child doing something he shouldn't have. What was strange is that he felt familiar to this person. "Who is he?"

"Don't know. Unlike the rest of the book's illustrations, this one doesn't have a description." Neji had felt something from this man when he came upon it, but his powers did nothing to help since it could not tell him the past. And nothing of the future came from it, probably meaning this person died already. He didn't want to bring it to Itachi since he agreed with Sasuke that ani-sama is acting weird, even for being Itachi. "I was hoping you could get something from it."

Sasuke didn't have the power to see into the past like Itachi, obviously, but he can grasp the residue of people's thoughts on objects they had strong feelings for. He never told his brother of this ability, probably because he knew his brother was already hiding things from him. But if it came down to it, he also didn't want to burden his brother with any more worries. Neji knew. But Sasuke hesitated on this. Sure, he was sacrificing animals left and right in the hopes of summoning the demon and riding of the curse, but this seems real. The book had an unearthly feeling to it. People's minds were already such a frightening place; he didn't want to see the mind of whoever made this book. But… He took a deep breath, placed his hand on the book, and let his mind loose.

He waited for horrible images. Nothing came. The two looked at each other in confusion. Maybe it was too long ago and there was no residue left to see into.

"Well, that—," Neji stopped. He had reached out to close the book and a strong heaviness drifted over his entire body. He looks towards Sasuke and saw the same expression he might be wearing on the other's face.

Neji and Sauske pulled their hands back. They gave each other a final look before deciding to give whatever this was a go. Both extended their hands back towards the book and released their powers to see into the object. Neji's powers struggled against the invisible wall blocking him into the future. With Sasuke's powers to read into the past owner's thoughts, he pulled Neji along with himself back. Neji's powers developed into a hindsight towards the past.

Once things stopped swirling, the vision stopped at a house in the middle of the woods. It was a cozy-looking place with smoke running from the chimney and plants growing near the side of the house. The attention catcher was the young man chopping wood, not too far off. He immediately sensed someone watching him and turned towards them. He broke into a smile and walked over. Once he was close enough for them to feel uncomfortable, he kissed them.

"Welcome back," the young man said.

* * *

**A/N: **There hasn't been any questions so...

Naruto and Gaara's identity are no mysterious anymore. It's just a matter of when and where when their identity is revealed to Sasuke and Neji.

Do you guys know any place that sells okonomiyaki? I've tried the Korean version and it wasn't to my taste. If you guys know, that be great. Just name a restaurant.

I was also thinking of making Thou Shalt Not Kill into a manga. A web-comic mostly. Not with the Naruto characters, of course. I need a drawer. You know. Cause I can't draw. But surprisingly I made a comic and they published it. Ah, it's amateur work.

...now I feel embarrass for asking.

**Narra 2.0 :** What if someone agrees, you meet them and they turn out to be a psychopath?

...now I feel scared. How would I go about doing this? My friends don't know I'm moonlighting as a fanfiction writer. Watch out, I could be your friend. If a web-comic becomes popular, do you make money off of it? I'll try to update again.

**Narra 2.0 :** Yes, after you finish that paper, memorize all those japanese characters, do the homework and read these many pages.

By the end of the year. T.T


	12. Missing Chapter

**Read this before proceeding. Remember how why back in chapter eight, I think, I said there was suppose to be this not-even-a-kiss thing between Sasuke and Naruto, but I instead made it for Gaara and Neji because I didn't like repeating things. Well, ta-da! The chapter came back to me miraculously. This chapter shows how Sasuke and Naruto's date went. It can be interpreted as part of the story, but then would make Sasuke's rant to Neji after the date seem weird. I wanted to show you guys how their date went down. But, yeah, not a new chapter. Just something that was missing.**

* * *

**Missing Chapter from Somewhere between Chapter 7 and Chapter 8. Or I could be wrong and it's really between Chapter 6 and 7. **

"Did you like the movie?" asked Sasuke, awkwardly. He didn't know what kind of movie Naruto would like, so he winged it.

"Yeah, it was good." Naruto took a nibble at his popcorn, but otherwise, did not make a move to stand. "You mind if we stay here to watch the post-credits?"

"No, I don't mind." With Naruto's attention focused on the screen, Sasuke look around him anxiously. It had taken him hours to decide a place for their date. After the realization of his new found desire, he decided the normal thing to do is ask Naruto out, except it hadn't been easy for him. Having dinner with Naruto made his heart beat faster, because he couldn't stop thinking (like a girl) about Naruto sitting across from him…staring. A walk in the park also made his heart beat faster, because what if their hands touched? What if he suddenly develops palmar hyperhidrosis? The theater is perfect. It has lots of people, a distraction (via big movie screen) in the dark and when it is done, they can get the hell out and order some food in a crowded fast food restaurant.

"But you hate fast food," his cousin had said.

"That is beside the point," Sasuke had told Neji.

But now here they were, alone in a big, dark room.

"Are you okay? You look a bit on edge."

Sasuke pretended to had been thinking about something else. "Huh? Me? No. I'm fine."

Naruto was about to continue eating his popcorn and enjoy the list of names on the credit roll, but instead, placed the bucket down and focused his attention on Sasuke. "I need to ask you something."

"Okay." Over the smell of aged popcorn and funky theater chairs, Sasuke caught the scent of Naruto's cologne. Well, it could've been the stench of bad home-made cooking for all Sasuke cared. The point is, it is on Naruto and it smells good. Of course, that would defeat the point of it possibly being the stench of—Sasuke mentally shook his head. Why he was thinking of that in the first place, he has no idea.

"Why did you ask me here?"

Sasuke blink slowly at the question, because the question deceived him. "Why? Because I like you." Then he saw the distrust in Naruto's eyes and those blue eyes wondering about, probably to find hidden cameras. "I really do like you."

"But just yesterday, you hated the sight of me. Maybe not yesterday, because you, I assume, was distracted by all the free stuff."

_True, _thought Sasuke.

"And you suddenly change your mind today? I find it hard to believe."

_If only you know what goes on in my mind._ Sasuke kept that too himself. He thought of reasons to change Naruto's mind. Words mean almost nothing here. To Sasuke, anyway. There's only one thing he could think of. He lean forward and place his lips on the blond. Sasuke doesn't have a lot of kissing experience and what experience he has is from the family's fifty-year-old coffee table that Sasuke would frequently fall asleep on, face down. So what Sasuke is doing is just that, placing his lips on a much softer surface.

Naruto is frozen.

Sasuke kept his eyes tightly shut. He watches TV and movies and he has seen kissing scene. But he wasn't about to attempt any of them. In the movie, they could be doing things, but from an outsider's view, he has no idea of what is going on inside. But this he does know; eventually, one of them has to move.

Arms gently grab Sasuke's arms and push him away. That is when Sasuke opened his eyes and saw the look in Naruto's eyes. It wasn't the same one he's been giving Sasuke all day. It was full of confusion and some type of struggling emotion.

"What are you doing?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke bit his lip. Anxiety and fear well up in him. Perhaps all this time, Naruto with the sick sense of humor that he has, was toying with him. It's an irrational thought, but with rejection looming over his heart, irrational is all he has. "You wanted to believe that I really like you. So…I…you know."

"Yeah, I know." Naruto release Sasuke and sat back in his chair. "But…why kiss me? You could've just talked to me."

Sasuke consciously smell his breath. It's fine. A bit of his breakfast, but nothing disgusting. Unless Naruto really is only playing with him. Yes, that makes absolute sense. Sasuke edge away from Naruto with his eyes on the floor. "Sorry, I didn't mean to. If you didn't like it—."

"No. I—just—words would've worked much better."

He looks up and saddens at the sight of Naruto clenching his arm chair. Naruto hates him. That's all he could think of. "Still, I'm sorry. When people go out, I assume you could do anything with them. No, t-that's wrong. The kissing…I wanted to and—sorry," he said nervously. Before the third sorry was out of his mouth, his eyes had already assumed their position on the floor. _The floor is interesting_, Sasuke thought. _It is so amazing._

All he heard was silence in return for the abrupt confession. Daring that he is Sasuke looks up again. The eyes he saw froze him. And just for an instance, he saw the sharp blue turn a deep red. Words were lost to him and he could only reach up to gesture at the eyes' sudden change of color.

"Excuse me."

The voice broke the connection. Sasuke whirled around in surprise and saw the movie attendant holding a red light in her hand.

"Sorry, but we're getting ready to show the next movie. Do you mind leaving?" the attendant asked politely.

Naruto gave the attendant a grunt before grabbing Sasuke's hand and pulling him from his seat. Sasuke allowed himself to be drag and totally did not miss the amused look the attendant gave him on the way out.

Sasuke wonder where they were going as they went outside the theater. When they enter a small alleyway (it's always an alley), Sasuke thought the worst, except his back hit the wall and Naruto lean in. _Oh_. Sasuke's mind clicked together. The corner of his mouth curled up to a smile before the nervousness smacked it down. Sasuke close his eyes and waited for the kiss, but it never came. He slowly lifted the lids to see Naruto looking away from him. Or to be exact, the wall Sasuke is leaning on.

"Don't. Do. That. Again," Naruto said, with so much intensity it almost sounded like a threat.

"I'm very confused right now. Do you like me or not?" Sasuke could not figure out Naruto's behavior. Exactly what is this blond's problem? Is it intimacy issues? It would be contradictory.

"I like you."

Naruto made a motion as if to kiss him so Sasuke instinctively wrap his arms around him. The arms position on either side of him moved to do the same to him. Sasuke leaned up, but before any contact was made, arms separated from him and his back was against the wall again. This time, however, a body pushed up against him, very comforting and…muscley? Sasuke was having a hard time forming grammatically correct words, in his mind. "Aren't we passed the hard-to-get part?"

"I like you a lot and that is why you sound never say those kinds of things again. Not unless you want to lose a precious something of yours in a dirty alleyway behind a theater."

Sasuke's arms fell away from Naruto and stood frozen by his side. He watch as Naruto laugh at the shock look on his face. His studying did not include this type of open-pornographic language.

"Sorry," Naruto apologized, amused. The amusement fell immediately and was replaced by something Sasuke has read from a lot of people in the past: lust. Naruto's mouth glides a few centimeters from his lips, moving from there to his cheek and back again. "Hard to control myself around you."

Sasuke gulps. He didn't know what to do with his hands, his mouth. What should he say? He's never thought of myself as anything seductive before. He knew from girls' thoughts that he is sexy and a "dark angel?" Whatever that is. But not as what Naruto is thinking of him right now. Sasuke couldn't help himself. For the first time in a long time, he really wants to know another's thoughts. Sasuke reddens. What he saw definitely has predictable attachments from the small dip he took. He didn't want to go in too deep. Either he become too lost in thought (literally) or he could become really turn on. Sasuke couldn't decide which he wanted more. But what he heard of Naruto's thoughts made Sasuke feel flawed. Adorable, intelligent, beautiful, mesmerizing dark eyes, delicious skin (hygiene fetish?), witty: perfect. And yes, that was only a small dip. After his small inner ordeal of calming himself, Sasuke realized Naruto was still staring at him, no matter if he was in reality or not. Then he remembers what Naruto said. "Hard to control yourself, huh? I think I read that in a book somewhere. Except it was about control over the lust of blood."

A mischievous twinkled shined in Naruto's eyes. "A kiss won't give me blood lust. More like a pleasurable S&M rape."

He pushed Naruto away. It was more to do with reflex, because Naruto's forwardness, than out of dislike.

Naruto took no offence to it. He laughed it off and simply continues to stare at Sasuke until the boy had nothing to do, but walk away. At the corner of the alley, he turned back for a shy glance.

"Are you coming?"

Naruto followed in exhaustion, muttering, "Words, words, words. Choose your words."

* * *

**This is my comments in this specific missing chapter. I figure I just leave this as is. **

I had trouble with the kiss scene between Sasuke and Naruto. It didn't come to me as easily as it did for Neji and Gaara. Maybe I used up all my mojo-nation for it. After reading a 'take-no-offence' comment from a certain commentor, I decided to take it out. I figure it is not meant to be. So there is the slightly intense almost-kiss scene.

Also, the curse will be explained more in details later on. It will be explain through dialogue and anything not in there, you can ask and I will answer. About Sasuke and Itachi's mother, it has nothing to do with Hinata. The part where Sasuke said, "Because I don't want her to end up like mom," the 'her' there is about the possible match for Sasuke. Heavy emphasis on the possible. The 'her' is not Hinata. Hinata is pretty much not in the picture right now. I haven't found a time for her to be in the story and Kiba, he's a comic relief fellow.

Let me explain this sentence, "Neji never knew his parents and Hinata grew up with poor substitutes." Neji lived with his parents before they died and this is when Hinata was a baby so Itachi, Sasuke and Neji had to pitch in as parents, but being young children, they didn't do very well in coping with a constantly crying baby. There is the old maid mentioned earlier in the chapters, but she wasn't with the family that long. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what is going on with them. She probably thinks its suicidal tendencies. You know, insane.

About my boredom-ness. Skip Beat is included in my one day a week manga obsession. And I don't like TCP (Tokyo Crazy Paradise). Over time, the story got tedious for me.

And itachi, he's totally going for the cut across the wrist technique. Come on, a guy with a fascination for knife and lots of emo thoughts. It's so obvious I'm not even keeping it a secret. It's just one of those things, you know.

Has anyone seen Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz? Critics based the movie so bad, but it was really good. Carmony, especially, said Diaz isn't a star anymore. Since when? Did I smack my head and fell asleep for fifty years? Because that would be when Diaz isn't a star anymore. Why? Because she would be dead.

Sorry, ranting. But hey, new chapter.

**But not really.**


	13. Excerpt 3

**Again not a new chapter, but an excerpt. I seriously don't know how to continue the story and to make sure I don't write something horrendous, I thought I sit on it for a while. With the way I'm writing the new chapter, it seems kind of like Beauty and the Beast minus the dancing furniture and happy ending.**

* * *

Excerpt 3

"-OW! I DON'T KNOW! OMG, IS HE GONNA DIE?"

Sasuke scrunch up his face in irritation, wondering why he was hearing Kiba's voice. It wasn't in his head, it was coming from outside. He opened his eyes and when he felt himself waking up, he also felt the heavy weight of reality on his body. His head pounded with a heavy migraine and everything felt so sluggish. "What happened?" he asked, or meant to ask except his voice was so parched it came out more like scratchy nails than words.

"THANK THE LORD HE'S ALIV-OW!"

"Whoa, whoa! Cut!" yelled the director as the medical crew rushed onto the set.

The actor playing Neji appeared flustered. "Sorry, my hand slipped."

"Slipped? Hitting him wasn't even in the script! What if he sues?" A shrug was his answer, which aggravated the director even more. He threw up his hands in frustration before taking a look at the circle of medical crew surrounding the supporting character. "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, nothing to worry about." The head of the medical crew ripped out a piece of paper and handed it to the director. "That'll be two hundred dollars. We _do not_ accept checks and credit cards. Thank you."

The director was appalled at the crew and the paper. "But you said nothing was wrong with him!"

"Yes, but that's the standard amount for our check-up."

"B-But…you didn't even use this ear thingy," he yelled, waving a stethoscope. He almost threw it at someone when a pair of shoulders shrugged at him. "Well, then you're fire!" the director shouted before retreating to his trailer.

One of the set members leaned towards his friend. "He does know that he can't fire them, right?"

His friend shrugged and went back to work.


	14. Chapter 10

HAHAHAHAHAHA! I finished the new chapter. I don't know. I just had a sensation to write and this is what puked out. It's not a masterpiece, but hey. I was busy watching the Disney Channel. Hannah Montana ended. So sad. T.T Now waiting for Wizards of Waverly Place to end.

By the way, I have been mad-searching for this specific fanfiction. I don;t know the title or author, but I've read it a while back.

Naruto is a vampire and he's been ordered by the counsel (or some shit) to find a mate or be cursed with pain every full moon. He goes around searching and he finds several people who he turns into vampires, including Hinata and Tsunade (drunken mistake). Ino too. Then he meet Sasuke when the boy is seven, I think, and wa-la true love. Sasuke is some prince. Naruto let Hinata guard Sasuke till he is old enough to turn, but when Naruto comes back, Sasuke pretends not to know him. ya-da ya-da. What is the story called? Can anyone tell me?

I am going crazy. Did the author delete the story? Who can find it? I have only my soul!

* * *

Chapter 10

Sasuke completely freaked when the man came up to kiss him. There was a sensation there that wasn't his. It belonged to the owner of the book and this was what he experienced. Usually his visions didn't make him a part of the show, merely a participant, but perhaps it was a result of combining powers with Neji. Almost eighteen years together and they've never tried this until now. It hadn't occurred to them.

But he didn't want to pull out of the vision. There was something familiar about this man and they have to find out why. Besides, this could help them to free Itachi.

Now that that has been accepted, Sasuke took a good look at his surroundings. He definitely was not in the modern world anymore. The man looked more impressive than the picture made him out to be. His hair was much longer and would reach to his back if untied. And his eyes sparkled a… Wait, Sasuke thought. The eyes were identical to…! Ah, Neji! Sasuke panicked with this information and his anxiety threatened to pull the powers apart, but he felt a calm hold being placed against him.

'_Stop pulling so much.'_ His cousins thoughts became his own and he calmed down. He saw that Neji knew as much as he did, but decided not to ask any questions right now. There was no point since they knew so little to even come up with an answer to those questions.

"You're late. You'll have to wait…haven't finished chores yet…"

There were words missing from the man's mouth. It was like being put on mute while having some parts fast-forward.

'_We don't have enough power to make it too vivid and steady,'_ Neji explained.

Sasuke watched what the demon (highly probable) saw.

And found him perverted.

Of all the places to look at, why is the view only focusing on the ass? The view is solidly on the ass. It doesn't move so Sasuke starts wondering if maybe this thing was on pause. It wasn't like watching TV, so it couldn't be, right?

"Whew, I'm done. You want to eat—" The scene immediately skipped to random moments in between. There was times where they two went into town, for a walk, by some lake, and other happy moments. But Sasuske felt like he missed a big moment there. The demon's name could've been revealed. This is what they're waiting for.

"I'm telling you! Something is not right with him," warned another man. This one looked more like he was used to doing hard labor. He had shaggy, brown hair and stood a few inches taller than Neji-look-alike (just the eyes). The problem was their view. Sasuke was listening to this from above the two men's heads. The demon was on the roof spying on them.

"You're just imagining things. He's a nice gentleman."

"I saw him talking to Katherine before she was burned at the stake! He could be the accomplice we're looking for."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the mention of stake burning. Sure, the comment was no further from the truth, but honestly, people these days. Then he thought about it and remembered that they weren't people from his time. Still, it irritated him.

"Or worse, he could be—."

"Enough!" The Neji look-alike slammed his fist down onto the table. "I will not have you slander him in my house. Leave."

The brunet looked shock at his friend's anger, but he made his way towards the door. Before leaving, he said, "You've changed…will never forget…"

Sasuke glance at his cousin to see if he got anything out of reading the other's lips, but Neji only gave him a futile look. He sighs. This wasn't getting them anywhere, except for a lesson in history. He tried to expand his mind more into the depths of the demon's own thoughts, but saw only possessiveness. The scene changed again, some of them way too erotic for two cousins to be watching together, and then it was burning. Without having to see its emotions, he can tell the demon was scared. Neji's grip on his hand tightens and Sasuke knew the worst was to come.

The angry brunet from before was there in the middle of it all, holding the body of their ancestor in his arms. His face had this half-crazed look to it. The other half knew what was going on and participated in the deed. The demon, without a second thought, threw the human aside and took the place of cradling his beloved.

"He's mine now, demon. You can never have him. He's in a place you can never reach, with G—." The word God never came out of his mouth before his tongue was ripped out and his body beat to death, which sadly was not long due to the powerful force of the demon.

Neji and Sasuke only had each other to comfort. It wasn't something one sees every day, a body punched till it was grind meat. It was different from feeling his mother die. Even then he had not seen her body. Itachi had been careful to send him away when it happened. The horrible cry coming from the demon's mouth startled the cousins from keeping their eyes closed. They went back to the body, cradled it, kissed the cold lips, and watched as the eyes saw nothing again. The flames did not harm the demon's body, but it began to lick at his beloved's clothes. Even so, the demon didn't move. He stayed and Sasuke realized he stayed until everything was burned into crisp. There were noises behind them then, possibly from the villagers seeing the smoke at this time of night. The image blurred out, but before leaving, they felt an intense anger and they knew that anger wasn't going to dissipate until blood was shed.

Just like that it ended.

Which clearly shocked them.

Neji looked at Sasuke, Sasuke looked back. They weren't sure what to say. Turns out the demon they thought were responsible for their predicament wasn't responsible. Turns out… everything was just so confusing. If the demon didn't curse them, who else did? H-How in the hell—for lack of a better word—were they suppose to stop all this? And…

"That was—."

"—short? I know."

The past barely gave them time to access everything. They do know the demon is a guy. It was firmly established. But other than that, there were no other enemies. Except for that crazy brown hair guy. What was up with that?

Sasuke rub his head, hoping the ache would go away. No such luck. He got up and immediately regretted it as the motion made his stomach lurch. He ran to the bathroom and retched. Neji called in after him, but as his mouth was preoccupied, there was no answer. He sat back on the cold floor, only bothering to wipe his mouth. He felt sick, worse than anything he's ever been. Neji's feet appear beside him and he managed a look up to show he was okay. For the moment. Neji stared back at him. Then his face paled.

Sasuke mustered whatever strength he had left in his body to avoid being trampled as Neji fell on his knees in front of the toilet. He couldn't pretend to be disgusted. He just feels so awful. Not wanting to move, he closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep right then and there. Fuck if he cared anymore.

* * *

"So what happened?" asked Naruto, nervously.

"They're fine. Might be sick for a few hours."

Naruto sigh in relief.

When they were looking into the past, Gaara suddenly let go of their hand. Which had been dangerous, had Naruto not been a demon. Gaara had explained how Sasuke and Neji were trying to use their powers on the book to find out about the owner. Gaara not wanting Neji to find out about him just yet had tried to discern some of the images and block them, but without hurting them. It had been hard. If it was anybody else, Gaara wouldn't care and would've had the shield up and paralyzed their minds. It was even harder with Naruto constantly by his side asking for reports and shouting warnings randomly when he thought Gaara was hurting them.

"What about you?" Gaara asked.

Naruto closed his eyes and frown through the images. "Aside from that crazy bastard, nothing. There were other demons present around the area, but none were involved in the act as far as I can tell."

"I know."

The blond saw the cold look in his "friend's" eyes and inwardly winced. Not that he wouldn't have done the same. "So where's the psychopath?"

"Cocytus."

Naruto nodded, feeling no pity. Again, not above him. Cocytus was the deepest level of hell. Of course, the number of hells wasn't accurate, but the name Cocytus had stuck. Naruto put his head between his hands and tried to think of anything else he missed. Not coming up with anything, he sighs and stood up. "I'm going to go check the Archive again."

Gaara raised his invisible eyebrow at that. They were desperate for the truth, but he never thought he hear Naruto volunteer to go to the Archive. "Don't bleed on my carpet again."

That was as good as a be careful as he was going to get.

Gaara got up and prepared to write a portal.

"Where are you going then?"

"To Cocytus."

* * *

Itachi didn't inquire why his cousin and brother were looking like shit. Truly they did. Dark shadows were under their eyes and they dragged their feet as they walked. When he went into Neji's room to call them for dinner, he received no answer. The first warning should've been the groans coming from the bathroom, but being the brave person that he is, he walked towards it. His back hit against the wall and a strangled sound came from his tight lips. His fingers searched for the light, but his eyes remained on the two zombie figures on the floor. Once light hit, he swore he heard a hiss coming from one of them. "Neji? Sasuke?" he called hesitantly. He saw them crawling (trying to get up) around and the visible shock was only from the bugling of his eyes. "Uh, time for dinner," he said as he backed out and headed out the door. But something caught his eyes. An old leather book. He spies a glance at the bathroom door before taking it with him.

At the dining table, he watched as they poke and stab at their foods, hardly eating, but presumably hungry. He cut into his meat and accidentally screeched his fork across the plate. That earned him a 'sssshhh!' and two evil glares.

"Do you have to eat so loudly?"

Itachi quirk a brow, though he refrained him banging and dragging his silverware. "Did you guys get drunk?"

They didn't answer him, but ate quicker than before, which was about as long as a cow chewing grass.

He didn't ask any further nor tried to use his powers. He doubt they let him. "You guys want to do something today?"

At this, they turned to look at him. Even he thought it sounded weird, but his birthday was coming up and he wanted to do something before then. He saw them exchanged a secret look and became suspicious.

"Not throwing me a birthday party, are you?" he teased. "Cause you both suck at keeping secrets."

Sasuke scowl at his brother. "Oh please. All you're getting his Chuck E' Cheese and a pizza."

Itachi shrugged. "I love Chuck E' Cheese."

"Oh yes you do," Sasuke hinted, which made Itachi kick him under the table. It hurt, but he felt good that it got to his brother.

"You better have gotten me something nice." Last year, Sasuke decided his brother needed someone in his life and bought him a blow-up doll. A game was attached to the hand, but still. Itachi held that thing over his birthday cake until the thing blew up. Course Itachi got him back by buying him gay porno. Sasuke can never watch it, knowing it came from his flesh and blood, which is the point really.

"Don't worry. I'm thinking of something more creative this year. A big cake. The biggest cake ever with a fireman inside. What do you think?"

"I'm thinking this isn't a birthday party anymore." Itachi kick him lightly on the shin. "I'm not getting married, little brother."

"Wow, if you got married, the bride must be hideous."

Itachi narrow his eyes at the playful smirk on Sasuke's lips. "How so?"

"Because why else would she marry you?"

He kicked his brother even harder than last time. Hearing a snigger to the left of him, he stabbed his fork into the biggest piece of meat on Neji's plate and popped it into his mouth. "You too."

"Hey!" cried Neji, but nothing he could do. He blamed Sasuke for it so he did the same to the other boy, resulting in a second cry.

Sasuke threw his fork onto his plate and carried it with him. "I don't have to take this," he said and left the room.

Neji and Itachi shared a laugh at him.

"Shut up!"

* * *

Naruto stood at the horizon of the cliff and looked at the Archive. It was more like a giant castle carved into a huge mountain. Sometimes. Well, depends on which side you come in from. There were many doors into hell, more than there were for heaven. For some reason. But hell isn't all flames and tortured bodies crawling everywhere. No, it isn't like that on the first two levels. There is plenty of torturing being done way below. He didn't like it down there too much. Just because he was a demon doesn't mean he like peeling off people's flesh and eating it. You know how unsanitary that is? He jumped and landed instantly at the Archive.

"Name."

"Aw, come on, Kakashi. I was just here two days ago."

"Name," the man insisted, but there was amusement behind it.

"Naruto, Fifth Duke of the Uzumaki Order."

"Access Denied."

Naruto stared at the small screen separating him and the doorkeeper. "What?

"Repeating Denied."

"Oh Satan help me."

"Not on weekdays."

Naruto gritted his teeth and cooled the fireball in his hand. "Naruto, Fifth Duke of the I'm going to kick your ass Order."

"Access Denied due to insulting comment."

The fireball flew at the screen. It heated, but otherwise did no other damage.

"Argh! Will you just let me in?"

"Password Requested."

"And stop talking like a damn machine!"

"Request Denied."

"Damnit!" Naruto threw a few more spells at the door. He didn't want to use any high level ones in case security came. He could deal with them, but that would make his stay here longer. Then he remembered what Sakura said some time ago he pissed her off. "Fine. Naruto, the Butt Lord of All Hairy Asses."

He heard a muffled laughed before "Access Granted" was said. Naruto rolled his eyes and cursed Sakura a millionth time more. Seriously, when is she going to let this all go? He strolls through the hallways, passing the sections he already went to. Suddenly he felt a chill through his spine and turned around slowly, hoping what he was feeling wouldn't be what he would see.

"Naruto," said a voice dripping venom.

He gulped and put on a friendly smile in the face of hell. "Sakura, how are you?"

"How am I? I spent the last two days washing magma out of my hair because some moron spelled me there."

He took a good look at her. Her pink hair was a darker pink, but otherwise unchanged. None of her appearance look all that different from when he saw her two days ago. Sakura was probably the only person in hell wearing so much pink, but it worked for her. She's pretty enough and has a nice body. Though with her personality people wonder why she wasn't working down further in hell. Like way down. His thoughts cut short when he felt her inching closer. No way is he letting her get that close again. "Sorry about that, but you did stab me with a magically enhanced knife."

"Serves you right too." She flips a strand of hair out of her face and waited for an opportune moment to stab him again.

Naruto narrows his eyes. "You're thinking of stabbing me again, aren't you?"

"Among other things."

A nerve on his forehead twitched. "At least pretend to deny it."

"Why would I do that?" She observes him for a bit, but made no further approach. Then a devious smile drawled over her lips, one that made him cringed. "Now why would Naruto be here I wonder? Must be something important."

He gulped. She got him there. After their last argument, way before she stabbed him, he hadn't appeared in the Archive for over a hundred years, because he was too scared shitless. After recovering from his wound, his sneaking by so soon gives her an idea as to his problem's degree of importance. "Look, I'm helping Gaara with something alright."

"What, lost your dick to him or something?" Only Sakura would be that crude to say it without flinching.

"No, I'm doing him a favor."

She laughed mockingly at him. "Oh please, Naruto. Give me more credit than that. I know you. You would've eventually gotten out of every favor if you really wanted to. Which means…" She dragged the last part out and smirks at him.

"Fine," he said, holding up his hands. "I would like to know anyone powerful enough to place a bloodline curse."

The expression on her face showed him that wasn't what she was expecting him to say. She still thought about it. Being Head of the Archive gave her privileges to personal information on many demon clans. "The one registered for those…" She trailed off, knowing he already checked those. "The unregistered ones aren't in my jurisdiction. You'll have to go further down."

Naruto click his tongue. He wanted to pound Gaara. The guy has too many enemies to keep track of; not that Naruto doesn't have his fair share of people wanting him dead. He really didn't want to go down any further than the fifth level. It wasn't as if he was afraid of meeting any old enemies, but seriously, have you been down there? Naruto was a demon and it still disgusted him. People literally live off of their own shit down there. That's why Naruto went high class.

"I could give you a few specific names," Sakura baited.

"No thanks," Naruto answered. He would have to ask them and they would get suspicious and possibly follow him back to the living, back to Sasuke. He didn't want Sasuke getting caught in any crossfire. If it was one name that would be good, but Sakura wasn't that good. She is trustworthy when it comes to secrets. "There's a boy in the living. Every male in the family is cursed to die at the age of eighteen."

The teasing disappeared from Sakura's eyes. "I'll look into it, but you'll have to give me a few hours."

"Don't take too long. The eldest son is nearing his birthday."

"Well, happy birthday to him." Her smirk returned as she eyes him.

Before she opens her mouth, Naruto sighs and nods. "Yes, yes, I'll owe you a favor. Thanks." He quickly left before she demanded anything else.

* * *

**A/N:**

T.T Please find the story. Whatever you guys want. I'll even upate. Pleeeeease**  
**


	15. Chapter 11

T.T a reviewer told me the story sounded familiar, the one I was looking for and it might be in their favorites folder. You do realize there's eight hundred thirty something stories in there right? I clicked on it and was like O.o "are they for real?"

Ah, well. I looked through them anyway and you can rest assure it is not in there. I'm such a masochist. But there is this funny story called Do Hearses Count in the Car Pool Lane? The first chapter had me laughing ridiculously.

I don't know the title of the story. I do remember the first chapter has Naruto discussing what blood tastes like and he said it tasted nasty.

Finding this story is like trying to find the remote. You have an aching feeling that you really need it, even though you can just totally just go up and push the tv button.

Chapter 11

* * *

He glares harder. Maybe if he looked like a murderer, they would stop staring, at least not so obviously. But his glare seems to have the opposite effect. They like his glare, his lack of attention to their flaunts, as if he was silently encouraging them. Well, he thought, there was always a saying: Girls love bad boys. He twirls the knife around on the table, occasionally letting it flip between his fingers. He hadn't been out much. This thinking led him to Naruto. He had forgotten what it was like with all this chattering in his head. He's been so busy thinking of only the blond that it was impossible to see anything else, except for the impending death of his older brother, of course.

Clicking his tongue, he check his watch again and the store's clock. He hopes one of them was wrong, but they remain exactly the same. The door ding as he opened and he wave Kiba over. Once the brunet ordered his water (cheapstake), Sasuke pounced on him. "Where have you been?"

"Moving furnitures and other heavy equipment. Chill." Kiba sip at his water leisurely as he waited for the other to tell him what was wrong. Sasuke only ever invited him out to complain. Not that he minded; free lunch and all.

"How's Hinata?"

Kiba bite the tip of the straw to keep the water there. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"She's my cousin."

"Exactly. Just give her a call and ask her yourself."

Sometimes Sasuke hated how unpredictable Kiba can be. Sure, he's a wimp and a pushover, but there are just those moments… "I'm asking you out of politeness, dumb dog."

Kiba immediately relaxed his suspicion and grin. "Oh, she's great."

Thank you, god, the guy was mostly predictable. "Good."

"Although she's been moody lately."

"You mentioned that last time. Maybe you left the toilet seat up one too many times." It was one of the many complaints among newly committed couples. It was right up there with toothpaste cap and leaving the lights on. You think if people complain about it so much, new couples would actually listen and stop it, but nope, still the top complaints.

"Could be."

Sasuke took note of how Kiba didn't even refute his theory. "Sorry I haven't been hanging out with you lately."

Again, Kiba's suspicion rose. "Wait a minute. Is something crazy about to happen?" he whispered crazily. "Oh lord, have you finally developed telekinesis?"

Sasuke roll his eyes at Kiba's excitement. According to his friend, telepathy is sort of a useless ability. Sasuke did remind him plenty of times that if he developed his powers, he could turn Kiba's mind to mush. Kiba's comeback was that it wouldn't matter since his mind would be too mushy to even care, hence it was useless. Kiba had a long time wish of opening an academy for the highly gifted and cursed. He had turned a blind ear to Sasuke's truth that without powers of his own, Kiba wouldn't be able to hold his own against those mutated teenagers and be squashed like a bug. So combining those things, Kiba had always been hoping Sasuke's powers would develop into an active power, mainly telekinesis, because, in Kiba's words, "…dude, it would so awesome to move everything with your mind. I would, like, never leave my couch." Idiot, right?

"No," Sasuke burst Kiba's bubble. For now. Kiba is waiting for Sasuke to turn twenty-one and maybe Sasuke's powers would come forth after being induced by alcohol. Sadly, Kiba's knowledge of the curse is limited. "I just… you are my friend. My only outside friend."

Kiba blinked quickly several times to wait for his brain to fully understand what his ears just heard. "I don't want to alarm you, but all this open feeling is creeping me out."

Sasuke let out a sigh of relief and lean back against his chair. He almost laughed. "Oh, I thought I was the only one. You want to go hang out at an arcade or something?"

Kiba gladly accepted, thankful the personal conversation was over, but still suspicious. This was not like Sasuke at all. He would have to tell Hinata.

* * *

He stepped down from the balcony and into the room. Even as a demon, he always gets a queasy feeling after transecting from hell air to earth air. There is a whole other world between them. Knowing that since he is a upper level demon and lower level ones must feel worst made him turned the queasiness into happiness. Gaara wasn't there waiting for him, not that the red head would ever wait on anyone. He flops down onto the couch and switch on the TV with a wave of his hand. Time to give gluttony and sloth a chance to shine.

Knock, knock.

Son of a-, Naruto didn't finished the thought. It could be Sakura. Then he just settle for bitch. He opened the door and was surprise to find Sasuke standing there, fine and dandy. "Hi," he put on his best smile, but Sasuke showed no reaction, except for a repeated greeting in return. He let him in and closed the door, locking it. Though for security purposes, he still felt like a pervert. "What's up?"

Sasuke balanced himself on his heels then settle back down before shrugging.

Daresay, he was nervous.

"I thought you might want to do something." Then those dark eyebrows narrowed. "Because you were injured?"

Naruto froze. He had forgotten about his injury. What did he have? A big cut. Without missing a beat, he continued to smile. This time, more than any normal person would. "What do you mean?"

"Your injuries? The ones you got from a...panda." He felt embarrassed just saying it.

Then the blond laughed for all he was worth. Some parts, he exaggerated. He placed a comforting hand on Sasuke's head and said deadpanned, "You are crazy." He crossed over to the couch, not forgetting to materalize dozens of painkillers onto the kitchen table before hitting the cushions. "I feel fine."

Sasuke saw the empty pill bottles, then turn to Naruto and tried to determine how many he's taken in the past hour. "You're high as a kite."

"Oh and is the wind good." Naruto grinned as his boyfriend paced the room in a fret. He frowned, not sure if Sasuke considered them to be official. Then he grinned again, because his plan was so eeeeevil. He didn't mind laughing out loud like a maniac and being all weird. As far as Sasuke knew, he was drugged and could say anything he wanted without having to explain it. "Sasuke," Naruto cooed and beckoned him to sit down.

And Sasuke was cautious. He was afraid to find out what a medicated Naruto would do, but then remembered that the blond is injured. Catering to his needs, with clothes on, would have to be his job for now since it seems Gaara is absent. "What? You hungry?"

"No, silly." Naruto laughed and laid his head down on Sasuke's lab. "I was just wondering."

"About?"

"Was there pudding in the rabbit's shoe?"

Sasuke was mature enough to not show he was freaking out of his mind. All those pills could not be good for Naruto and that question proved his point. "Perhaps I should get you to a hospital." He made a move to help him up, but Naruto was much stronger than he was, drug induced or not.

"No hospital. If you're my boyfriend, you wouldn't take me to a place where they put needles into your body. We're not porcupines, you know."

Trapped between the couch and the blond, he could only sigh and agree. "Whatever. But if you start talking about things I don't understand, I'm calling for an ambulance."

Naruto laughed heartily and loosen his grip. He reaches up to caress Sasuke's face. "You're my boyfriend."

Sasuke removed the other's hand from his face, but the blush really showed against alabaster skin. "W-Well, of course you are. We went out, didn't we?"

"I can be worried. Mainly, I don't know why you would be attracted to someone like me." Then he heard a sound he rarely heard before: Sasuke laughing. Naruto, even being the easy-going demon that he is, never liked people to laugh at him. With him, of course, but never at him. No one really dare and if they did, well, they aren't really laughing now. But he found he could stand Sasuke laughing at him. He would run in front of a bus if that be hilarious to Sasuke. Quite strange, really. Naruto always found buses running over other people to be more hilarious.

"I don't peg you for someone who worries."

Naruto found himself worrying over things he wouldn't even consider, like not interrogating other demons when his source did not flow as they should because he worried it might get back to Sasuke. Though, that would be nearly impossible since he always cover his tracks neatly. There is also a fast tick tock feeling in his heart whenever Sasuke was even mentioned. He knew what the feeling is. Being demonic didn't stop him from feeling things humans do. Now, Sasuke was staring at him with his sweet, care free look in his eyes. And he couldn't help himself. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against the other. Officially, it would be their first kiss and Naruto didn't think he could bare it. Demons have extra senses than humans and they could taste a soul. Maybe that's where all the rumors about demons eating humans' souls came from.

But all the history books in the world could never tell Naruto how delicious it was. It wasn't the first time Naruto tasted a soul. He's had thousands and eaten about half of those. However, Sasuke had the nectar of honey combined with the most heavenly…it was heaven!

Naruto avoided being overly intimate with Sasuke, because even without contact, he could smell the erotic scent from the other and it always dried his mouth. He didn't want to scare him, afraid that if he did, Sasuke would never let him have a taste, so avoided contact until he was sure Sasuke wouldn't run away from a kiss. When Naruto had place his lips on Sasuke, the raven had tensed, due to first kiss and all, but he eventually let Naruto have his. He responded like Naruto wanted and made the blond forget about his 'wounds.' Naruto pushed Sasuke back against the couch and sank his tongue in; lapping at any corner he could while listening to the elicited moans. The blond love how Sasuke clung to him and kissed back with his inexperienced lips. That didn't matter much to Naruto.

Being a demon, he didn't need to breath if he wished it and he found after a certain amount of minutes, Sasuke would stop his clinging due to the dizziness of being unable to breath properly. And he couldn't have that. So after every so often, he would reluctantly let go and nib and lick at the other's lips to satisfy himself before clamping on again. And Naruto didn't realize his eyes had turned dark red. His teeth became sharper and—.

"Ow!"

Naruto pulled back quickly and let his head rest against Sasuke's shoulder so he wouldn't see the face Naruto had on. The blond breathed harder as he shoved down his demonic side and regulate his magic. He tasted sweetness in his mouth and looked at Sasuke. The corner of his lip was tinted with a red liquid. Naruto inspected the cut. "I'm sorry. You alright?"

Sasuke nodded, still blushing from their small ordeal. "Did I taste so good you had to bite?" he teased.

"Very," Naruto answered seriously. He licked the corner of Sasuke's mouth, using a bit of magic to make it heal faster than it normally would. Not completely healed, because that would make Sasuke suspicious.

* * *

"My ears are bleeding!" yelled Kiba.

Sasuke hit him to quiet him. "You're the one who asked what happened to my lips."

"I was expecting you to say you bit yourself or something other than your masochistic kissing frenzy."

"Fine. Last time I answer your questions."

Kiba's mood was not dampened by the tone in Sasuke's voice. Maybe that was why he was such a long-time friend. He was too dense to care about people's insults. Or maybe he really didn't care? "So what happened next?"

Sasuke sighed. Kiba was like the first victim in a horror movie who rather walks towards the creepy noise instead of away from it.

* * *

Naruto didn't want to poke at it. That would be rude. So he just stared at it and waited for something to happen.

"It's not poisoned, you know?" Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naruto poisoned himself enough with the painkillers. If he added anything extra, he was afraid the blond would have an overdose before he could dial 110.

"I don't know," Naruto said, unsure. "I find you're the type of person who could be really amazing at cooking or deadly. And I don't think I'm insured for food poisoning. In fact I don't think I'm insured at all."

Sasuke kick his leg lightly, not wanting to hit anywhere else cause of Naruto's wounds. "Just eat it."

Naruto raised the spoon to his mouth and popped it in like a pill. He chewed and swallowed, surprised. "Wow."

"What?" Sasuke asked, expectantly.

"It's so normal I'm shock."

Regardless of injuries, Naruto was smacked across the head.

* * *

Sasuke smacked Kiba too.

Because he was laughing.

At his story.

"Haha." Kiba stop laughing, but he still had his cheeky grin. It was true Sasuke's cooking was normal. It wasn't delicious, but it wasn't horrible. It was just there. "So what you do? Besides resorting to violence."

"We talked a bit then I left."

Kiba nodded then chuckle at bit at their previous conversation. "Okay, so you're gonna go home now?"

"Yeah, got stuff to do tomorrow."

"Okie dokie, I'll see you later."

Sasuke watched him walk away, but then decided to do it. He caught up with Kiba and gave him an awkward hug. "Ok."

"Ok?"

"See you," he said before—sort of—running away.

* * *

**A/N:**

It's not 911. It's 110 in Japan. And since they are in japan, why would I use 911? That's like the fire department, but backwards.

Been reading Toriko, the manga. I love food so much! Whenever I read that manga, I just think of eating something equally delicious, but sadly no. All we have is normal food. There's no pig running around with corns for organs or gigantic fish with pig meat inside. Still love food though. : D

So yeah, still haven't found that story. Did it get deleted, or what?

And I've been reading this manga called Vassalord. It is amazing and sometimes painful to read cause of all the slashing and cutting, but still so sweet. Lol.

What else? It had been five or six years as someone has pointed out to me since I've been writing on . Wow, that is a long time. Am I addicted or is this going somewhere? hehe love you


	16. Chapter 12

Warning: is having a few problems and I had to look for an alternative to upload stories. I got this from a rant from livejournal. I copy and pasted the solution in case anyone needs it.

**TO UPDATE AN EXISTING STORY**  
1. Login and go to 'My Stories' page as usual  
2. Click in the story you wish to update  
3. The error will come up as usual, with an address like this displayed: .net/story/story_

edit_**property**.php?storyid=[series of numbers]  
4. While on that page, simply go to your address bar and replace '**property**' with '**content**'. Change nothing else.  
6. Your address bar should now look like this: .net/story/story_edit_**content**.php?storyid=[series of numbers]  
7. You should now be able to update your stories normally.  
**This is currently the only way to update stories in the larger fandoms, which are the only ones affected by this bug. **

And the rest below will be what I wrote days ago.

Yup, I'm a masochist. I really do look through them all for that one story. And the sad part is I did not find it. Just answering a review. And someone ask what the heck was with Naruto biting Sasuke. It's not a mating thing, more like an animal instinct. He is still a demon, after all, no matter how docile he seems to be. The biting has no special meaning behind it, really. Like you see a big, red button, you want to push it. You taste something amazing, you want to bite it. Same thing. And let me add something, 'stranger danger'? Really? We're on the internet. I'm afraid already.

I don't know why I like Skip Beat, but not TCP. I didn't read it to the end. I read up till chapter 4 or six.

_Chapter Twelve_

* * *

Neji didn't like the heat. It made him sweat. Sure, it's a natural human response, but nevertheless, he didn't like it. But the sweating made him forget how nervous he was; gave him something to focus on. He had called Gaara out and made it clear they needed to talk. He's never done this before, but he knew from movies and shows it could get messy. Usually, there would be tears and some sort of angry nonsense. He was prepared to be punch once or twice. Repeatedly would be overdoing it since he's only known Gaara for a couple of days. He held his breath when the red head came into sight. Gaara carried the same passive look and didn't seem to suspect anything other than a normal conversation. And Neji has never been one for a roundabout way of saying things so he said it. "We should stop seeing each other."

To say Gaara was shock would be an understatement. He remained passive and unresponsive. Neji would prefer he react in some way. That he could deal with.

"Why?"

"There are some problems at home and I don't think I can handle a relationship right now." It wasn't a lie. There are problems at home. His cousin is going to meet his end due to a family curse. See, no lie.

"And you led me on, knowing this?" Gaara had a slight frown on his face.

Neji didn't know what to say. Seeing it on TV is actually quite different from doing it. There's the shameful pounding of your heart and this painful tearing inside. Neji didn't think he was breathing either. He bit his lip and nodded. He wasn't sure if he was doing a good job of being cold. Breaking up with someone requires you to let them know it is final. Don't give them an opening to wiggle back in.

But then he still want Gaara to be angry. He doesn't have to be sad. Neji only wants some form of emotion to show on Gaara's face. Then Neji would know he cared and he could go in peace. No. Gaara simply turned around and walked away. Neji almost felt abandoned, but he didn't say anything. Numbly, he returned home.

* * *

Neji closed the door then walked towards the couch where Sasuke is sitting.

"How it go?"

He sat down beside Sasuke, silently.

"That bad?"

Neji didn't want to talk about himself anymore. This was a strange feeling and he didn't want to think about it. He didn't much understand Gaara's reaction. There was a gut feeling telling him he did, but right now, he didn't want to face those things. "What about you?"

"I hung out with Kiba and gave Hinata a call lat—."

"I mean about Naruto?"

Sasuke look away. His cousin understood him and didn't ask any further. They both sat in complete silence, in their own thoughts. They wanted to be alone, but also needed someone beside them.

They had talked about this the night before. This is the plan. Gaara and Naruto weren't involed in this, but they knew enough to know the strong feelings they have weren't going to end well if either one of them died. Gaara and Naruto would be suffering and they wanted to ease that as much as they can. For what they're going to do, they need the people they love out of harm's way.

* * *

Gaara felt the ominous prescene before he reached the building. He knew what to expect when he opened the door, but it was a bit worse due to Naurto's destructive creativity. Acid dripped from the ceiling. Thankfully, Gaara has a demon-proof apartment so nothing burned through to the other residents. Most of his furniture was melted to goo and there was an unbearable heat. For a human, that is. Gaara would say it felt like spring with a hint of magma. Naruto sat, seething, in all this destruction. Gaara would voice his opinion at the state of his home, but he chose not to say anything. Not out of fear. He already knew what most likely happened, but asked all the same. "What happened?"

Naruto's eyes flared a dark red and his fingernails grew into talons as if remembering the event. Sasuke had come over and he was excited to tease his new boyfriend, but Sasuke had instead come to end their budding relationship. What kept him from shoving Sasuke against the wall and raping him was the undesirable feeling to not do so. Never before had he felt so angry and a hopeless feeling of lost. He had let his demonic powers go wild after Sasuke was gone. Angry as he was, he could never fathom Sasuke getting hurt. But he wanted to! He had felt such a need to chain Sasuke up, lock him away and keep him close always.

Gaara rebuild his chair with a wave of a hand and sat on it. "Neji also dump me today."

"Who gives a fuck?" spitted Naruto.

The red head merely sat in silence with his legs crossed. He waited till the blond figured out the meaning behind this coincidence. He realized the answer came to Naruto when the temperature in his room went back down to breathing level. "Thank you."

Naruto rubbed his temple in frustration. The talons having turned back into normal looking fingernails. "So what now?"

Knock, knock!

The blond took a look at the door before the knocking sound came back. He turned to the gooey TV and almost jumped as it knocked again. "I think there's someone in your TV."

"It's a portal to the underworld." Gaara fixed it with a flick of his finger and switched it on.

"You have a TV that serves as a gateway to hell? Who's gonna come out? Carol Anne?" Now that Naruto know Sasuke really didn't want to break it off with him, his good humor is back.

"No. Me."

Both stare as a petite leg pop out of the fuzzing screen. At the end is strapped with a black stiletto. The other leg came out, follow by the body wearing a red mini dress. And then the devil came out of the TV screen with pink hair.

"Sakura," Gaara greeted. A curt nod is his reply.

She plops down on the chair opposite Gaara and places her legs on top of the burnt coffee table. "What kind of dump are you two living in?"

Naruto had forgotten about that, but with a glare from Gaara, he tidied the place up as it was before he trashed it. "You have new information for me?"

"Depends on how you look at it."

The two noted how there was no thrill to her tone. Whether the news is bad or good for anyone, she would show her excitement for having solved the puzzle. That meant she found nothing. Naruto's edge over Sasuke hadn't completely dissipated and he threw the couch against the wall in anger. When it bounced back due to the force, he blew it away with a burning flame. He walked to the kitchen with hands dragging through his hair.

"What's the matter with him?" Sakura has never seen the blond so angry over something trivial as information. Unless there was something else to be known. Her lip curled up in a mischievous grin.

Gaara, sensing what she was planning, warned her. "This matter does not only involve Naruto, but I as well. Until it is solved, I have no patience for any amusement of any kind."

She rolled her eyes. _'Do you ever?'_ But cleverly kept her mouth shut. "I did say this depends on how you see it." She set down the list of names gathered and flipped through them. "The others check out."

"How can you be sure?" Naruto asked, having come back from his blowout.

"There was that plague going down in Europe at the time. Most of these demons were over there, striking bargains and whatnot. The ones in Japan were only starting to establish their territories while the American demons were doing the usual. The Archive holds no record of it being used. I check the black market, but nothing came up."

"Again, we've gotten nowhere."

Interests spark in her eyes at Naruto's increasing irritation. She made no voice of it, knowing it'll cause harm to her than good. But Naruto does owe her a favor now, regardless of the results, and when this blows over… "There are two suspects."

"Who?" Gaara perked up. He hasn't gotten a name in the last few days. Once he has one, or two, he could maim and torture.

She crossed her legs and enjoyed the suspicious looks. The notes on the table burned up with a wave of her hand. "So does that mean dear Gaara owe me a favor too?"

It should annoy him, but Neji's safety comes first and so he only nods. Gaara doubt he would enjoy this later. His agreement, though, only seem to increase Sakura's curiosity. That habit of hers made her a highly respected member of the Archive. She was like a demonic gossiper on wheels.

Her perfectly manicured finger pointed towards Gaara then they changed direction and aimed mercilessly at Naruto. The blond was at first confused by her intentions. Realization struck him and he cried out with rage. He would've beaten her too, if she didn't stop him by opening her mouth.

"My work is flawless. You two are the only ones capable at the time for creating the blood curse. That man you sent to Cocytus," she looked at Gaara. "He was at the mercy of his own sins and no demons. Humans corrupt themselves without needing our help. At the time, you two are the only ones capable of it. If you don't believe me, you can keep checking." She got up, not bothering to feel remorseful for the confusion she caused. After all, she is a demon; she didn't care. Sakura crawled back through the TV and gave a wink before disappearing into the grey fuzz.

"So what are we going to do?" Naruto had meant to ask that, but a blast of energy knocked him off his feet. His instincts took over and he got up, teleported to another location and materialized a spell in his palm before asking any more questions. "What the hell was that for?"

"You…!" Gaara stared at him with a fury like no other. His face turned almost to that of an orgre and scars formed on his face, expanding into runes. The barrier surrounding his room snapped and shattered as his powers turned malicious and uncontrollable. In all of his battles against demonic armies, he has never truly shown anger at anybody or anything. He killed for the sake of killing and he was never regretful of any of his actions. Now was different… "I should've known it was you!"

"Tch. It wasn't me. I would never curse Sasuke and if I did, I would've removed it by now."

"Lies!"

Naruto let the control slip. He felt his powers swept over as his from also change. His eyes glowed red as he became more feline. The lines of his hair grew longer and his nails expanded into claws. His skin dripped with acid like power, melting the delicate clothing. Naruto could talk it out, but his head would roast on a stick before the conversation got half way through. They were demons. Nothing comes out could be determine as the truth and should always be re-examined before any action is took. Though they were friends, when it came down to the truth, they were demons. There was no way for Gaara to know Naruto was speaking any truth and he didn't trust the blond's words. Gaara had obviously been holding in any rage he should've shown when Neji rejected him. If it hurt Naruto, Gaara was no different. What would happen is for Naruto to fight and beat the crap out of Gaara. Then he could explain. Only when one is near death would there be any result.

Gaara crouched. All reason and logic was no longer in him. All he did is attack.

* * *

"You didn't tell Kiba you broke up with Naruto?" asked Neji. They were writing down the instructions and memorizing any needed parts. Some of the things they would have to go buy. But during this, the two had got to talking and the subject fell on Sasuke's day with Kiba. "Why?"

"The guy burst into tears when he sees a bird gets hit by a car. My first real relationship ending in doom doesn't seem to be the way to start our day together."

"So what really happened between you and Naruto?"

Sasuke sighed. It hadn't been what he expected. He had arrived at Naruto's door, or rather it was Gaara's. The blond had opened it, obviously and…

"Hello, beautiful." Naruto grinned flirtatiously.

"We need to talk." He wanted this to be over with, quick and easy. But as he thought about how to say this, he noticed the way Naruto was moving. "Weren't you injured?"

Naruto grinned ridiculously and seem unable to hold himself. "What do you mean?"

"Are you high? You're on drugs?" Perfect, Sasuke thought. He didn't want to declare a break up with Naruto not even being in reality right now.

"You wanted to talk?"

Sasuke didn't want to do this. He thought another time would be best, but then that would take too long and he could lose his nerve. No, high or not, Naruto was taking this. Maybe the drugs would help him accept it more. He entered without permission and immediately request Naruto sit down. He hesitated for a bit and he could sense Naruto was getting curious. Sasuke thought it best to say it without any riddles as to not confuse the already confused Naruto. "I would like to break up."

It took a while. Naruto didn't say anything, but he frowned and peered as if not quite getting it. Sasuke hoped not. He really didn't want to say it a second time.

"What?"

Sasuke didn't respond, but he had remembered. He remembered the way Naruto had felt dangerous. Even in a rave and alone in a dark theater and never had Sasuke felt any safer, but this moment, he had been afraid for himself. Naruto's dizzying, beautiful eyes had turned to such a dark shade and it didn't hide what Naruto wanted to do. Sasuke had not known what to do. He could only look into those eyes and let it freeze him. The glare had dared him to move even as its owner commanded him to leave. He only left when Naruto couldn't take any longer and threw him out of the apartment.

He remembered those eyes wanting to tear him to shred for desiring to leave him and Sasuke had wanted to be torn. The dangerous prescene of Naruto alone had scared him to high heaven, but it was also a place he would never want to leave. He left those parts out, not wanting to sound like a weirdo in front of his cousin. Neji got the jist of it and asked no further.

In the back of Sasuke's mind, he smiled. He wonders what would have happened if instead of running away, he had knocked again on that door. An enraged Naruto whose only thoughts were of him.

* * *

No.

Sasuke is not scared. There is not the word scared in his vocabulary.

"Will you please stop shaking the knife?"

Okay, maybe it is a big part of his vocabulary, but people try summoning a terrible, cursing demon and see if any of you can remain calm. It wasn't as if they had active powers. Sasuke can see into other's mind. What was he going to do? Read its brain to death. He is also sure that he is nothing like Professor X with his powerful mind-controlling abilities. If he had it, he wouldn't be using the restroom five times every six seconds and having epilepsy just from the thought of pricking his finger.

"You are frightening me with that knife. A small prick will do, but why do I get the feeling you're going to chop my whole arm off?" asked Neji.

In order to summon a demon, they need a drop of blood to act as catalyst and pull the demon to them. This is the part where blood is thicker than water comes into play. Since their blood is the only physical object they can think of that connects them to the demon, one of them will be wearing a band-aid. Neji's blood was decided to be the best due to his similarities to their ancestor. And Sasuke get to jab him because Neji lost at janken.

"Just poke it!" Neji ordered. Waiting makes him edgy and he has been sitting here for quite a while waiting for Sasuke to prick him. How hard is it to get someone to stab you?

"Will you stop pressuring me?" Contrary to popular belief, Sasuke never found a fondness for blood; even with that one incident he tried to kill a rabbit.

Not standing it any longer, Neji pushed his palm against the blade. Drops of blood spew out and Neji quickly place it over the circle. "There."

Sasuke set the knife aside in annoyance. "Now what?"

Neji glance over the pages. "Now we call him."

"By name?"

"Yes."

Sasuke thought about the possible nature of that action. "We don't have a name."

"Hmm."

He snaps his head in surprise towards Neji. He watched as his cousin skim over the pages, in deep thought. "I pricked you for nothing?"

"Correction; I pricked myself."

"Still, how are we going to summon him?" The summoning spell they used was not ordinary. It allowed them to bind the demon to a bargain, or a challenge. They weren't sure if it was going to work and so Neji has a spell to banish it if anything should go wrong.

"Hah!" Neji declared brilliantly. "We don't need a name. It said here that since he cursed us—."

"Technically, he didn't curse us."

"Whatever he did, he is physically bound to us by blood. We just need to think demon and here he will be."

"You think it or I think it?"

"It is my blood."

Sasuke nodded in agreement and watch as Neji closed his eyes. This was it. They were going to free everyone. Hinata would live happily and Itachi would tie matrimony with whoever, god blesses their poor soul. Sasuke wonder what would happen afterwards. The demon obviously loved their ancestor—great, great, great,great,great uncle, or whatever he is—and freeing them should be among one of the things he wanted to do. There was always the problem with a demon always being a demon and just because he loved their ancestor doesn't automatically make him responsible for them. There are no obligations. So if they don't win, shit will hit the fan, but if they do… Even if they bind the demon to a bargain, it wouldn't agree unless the terms suit it. Sasuke will ensure only one of them will be scarified. He thought of Naruto and wonder if the blond will still love and long for him. A part of him needs it and the other despises himself for needing it. He would make sure his powers would entice the demon, instead of Neji's. But he found it hard to compete against clairvoyance. Who doesn't want to see into the future? No, Sasuke can do it. His confidence is a two on a scale of ten, but Neji was never too concise with his words to seduce anyone. Alright, they were both idiots when it came to seducing anyone. However, Sasuke's ego is confidence it can do better than Neji. God, he hopes he can do this.

"I don't think its working."

He came out of his daydream and stare around the empty room. No poof of smoke, no sign of any supernatural beings. Really, it was anti-climatic. The expectation of a threatening being came to a dead end. Maybe they got the spell wrong. Definitely not. Unless this wasn't a grimoire. Definitely not. This book gave them a vision of the past. There was no way it wasn't the real deal. There came the word 'unless' running through Sasuke's head and he saw it in Neji's eyes too.

Unless the demon already knew.

Neji slammed the book shut. "Damnit! Even if he was toying with us, there is no way he wouldn't come."

"Who wouldn't come?"

Shocked, they turned quickly to face the deadly glare of their guardian, Itachi. Things weren't going as they should today, thought Sasuke. The one person they didn't want to show up did.

"I thought you took care of him," hissed Neji.

Sasuke was sure he put enough sedative in Itachi's morning cup of coffee to knock him out until the next moon.

"You were hoping I be in bed with whatever it was you put in my cup?"

Sasuke said nothing, but yes, he did.

"First off, I knew what you did the instant I touched the cup. My powers, remember?" Itachi took slow steps toward them and the echo of those steps told of future pains. "And people say the power to see into the past is irrelevant. Second, what you put into my cup was not sedative. You should really learn the difference between Ambien and Alophen. If I had taken that, you can be certain the demon will be satisfied with my work when I'm done with you."

Sasuke promptly ignore the incredulous look of respect Neji shot him. Who knew, right? He thought they were the same thing. For a moment he forgot about his fear of the demon and became very frighten of his brother. His fear blinded him from seeing Itachi had taken the ceremonial knife and taking his place near the summoning circle.

"What are you doing?" said a panicked Neji.

That shook Sasuke's fear to a whole new level. "Put down the knife. You can cut yourself a thousand times and it wouldn't work. The spell is useless with our blood."

"You're wrong. If it's the blood of the demon's lover reincarnated, he would come. I saw the book's past too. Far more clearly than you two, by the way." He brought the knife up to his hand.

Sasuke ran, then, with Neji following, but they weren't anywhere near reaching Itachi. He had to stop his brother. His brother gave up too much and this shouldn't be use end. He has to—.

"STOP!"

By pure instinct, they turned to see the intruder, though they recognized the voice. It was still astonishing. Standing there more disheveled than they've ever seen her was Hinata. Beside her, in the same condition, was Kiba. Her breathing came short and hard. She had rushed over the second Kiba recounted what happened with Sasuke. She was angry and beyond worried. Tears rolled down her eyes in her frustration to decide on which emotion she wanted to feel.

"Hinata," Neji managed to say and disrupted the trance everyone seems to be in.

"Shut up!" she yelled in choked anger. "You think I didn't know? All of you think you're so subtle, saying those good-byes. You," she pointed to Itachi. "Wanting to spend time with us. The rest sneaking around asking one or the other out as a last day treat."

"Hinata, you don't understand." Itachi had never seen his little cousin like this before. She was yelling at them harshly, but so unused to it, she was crying through it too.

"No, I don't understand!"

The unusual serious Kiba shook them as he stepped up to comfort her and confront them at the same time. "You should've told us."

"Ani-sama, please don't." Hinata was never one for anger and it had already switched to despair. "You've done so much for us already. You took care of us after our parents died. Please don't," she broke off, unable to say anymore.

"I don't really know the details," said Kiba. "But there has to be another way." Seeing Hinata this upset was all he needed to stop whatever these morons were doing.

"I'm sorry, Hinata," Itachi told her. Then he looks at each one of them and repeated only, "I'm sorry."

Sasuke heard Neji gasp and saw what he was looking at. Much of the knife was stained red and from Itachi's clenched hand dropped red pearly liquids. They could only stare and no matter how surprisingly angry Hinata got, it didn't deter from the truth. But Sasuke saw it. He saw the few seconds of the ineffective spell and he knew what he had to do. He was much closer. He reacted faster. His brother had only started to think of the possible answer before Sasuke succeeded in running his hand roughly against the blade. What spilled, spilled.

Itachi's blood had not worked.

He saw the flash of horror in his brother's eyes, felt the shock from Neji and could not bear to watch Hinata break. Immediately, touching the inner circle of the spell, the circle glowed and cracked with foreboding. Sasuke watch Itachi's face fall into a deep numbing pain. But in that pain, Sasuke saw the fear of a child and he remembered Itachi was not yet eighteen. None of them were. Now, he could see the burden of a parent on Itachi's shoulders as clear as day. They were nothing, but children. Sasuke couldn't think what or why they were here. They shouldn't be here.

Sasuke was scared.

The knife fell from his brother's hand, but he didn't hear it reach the floor. There was a spark from the spell that was almost deafening. The force blew them off the circle; Itachi and Sasuke landing harder than most due to their proximity. The drawn symbols glowed yellow and flashed red as they saw the transparent appearance of a man. Or was it a man at all?

* * *

Naruto hissed at the burning wound on his arm. During the battle, he had to send both of them to another dimension. He was afraid any collateral damage would get back to Sasuke. When they reached a dead land, he didn't care and let loose all of his powers against Gaara. The red head wasn't one to go half-heartedly with. They had been fighting for hours and both were showing signs of fatigue. That's why the blond hadn't felt the pull of magic. People summoned him all the time back in the olden days and he could be able to shake it off or join them if he wished. But he was fighting for his life and didn't have the power to evade the spell. Plus with the pain of his wounds, he found the spell comforting. And the scent of the summoner's blood smells familiar.

"Where are you going, coward?" Even transparent, Gaara threw deadly spells one after the other. Some Naruto had to block, but others flew right thru him.

Growling, Gaara grabbed the surrounding magic of the summoning spell and he pulled himself along, still hurling spells non-stop, no matter if they hit or not.

Naruto always found summoning spell to be nauseating, but this one he enjoyed more than most. Gaara's useless spells were absorbed by the interfering planes they were crossing to get where they were going. Without warning, he hit hard wood. Breathing heavily, he tried to stand and found one of his legs had a chunk missing from it. The edge of the wound had acid burning the flesh by centimeters. That was going to take a damn long time to heal. His eyes widened as he sensed a particular presence. He found himself staring right into a pair of dark eyes. Eyes that was confused and afraid of him. "Sasuke," he said, before Gaara's demonic form joined them.

* * *

**A/N:**

For those of you who don't know, Naruto is referring to the movie the Poltergeist where the main character, Carol Anne, get suck into another dimension and the portal is the TV.

For this new chapter, you guys might see Sasuke as masochistic. Come on, he's in love with a demon. There has to be some loose screws in his head. And we've already seen Neji willing to bind himself to Gaara in every way possible after knowing the guy for a couple of days. They're not in any way normal. And I've always thought what it would be like to write an unhealthy, possessive love. I always think real love is not really healthy. It's like being hungry all the time and when you see them, you want to eat them, like really eating them.

And this was meant to be two chapters. Right where Sasuke and Neji are starting the spell is where it's suppose to be chapter thirteen, but the site wasn't letting me update so I just clipped and pasted it into one long chapter. It is getting near the end. So sad.

To compensate for when this is over, I've opened up a blog, but I definitely do not recommend you guys reading it. I was in such a state where my blog is like worshipping satan and sacrificing children to pagan gods. I kid you not. I found the most remote (now that I think about it, the site is quite popular, but my blog is unknown) site and posted everyday thoughts on it. Like a diary. But supporting abortion and monarchy. No hate reviews. It wasn't serious. I plead the Fifth, damnit. Or was it the first? Lol, okay, you guys know I'm crazy. Thank you for sticking with me this long.

Why am I ranting a good bye? There is still more chapters. On the stories, I might have to get back to you on that and I might also have to update my profile. Just for the hell of it. And it's a profile. I need to, right? Read this and listen to Carrie Underwood – Cowboy Casanova, because I'm listening to it while writing this. It sets my lonely mood. T.T

Lol kidding. Maybe.

Maybe I should switch to Akon – Mr. Lonely.


	17. Chapter 13

_Chapter 13_

Naruto's brain went on high alert. He saw the summoning circle with the fresh blood spilled on it. The scent told him it was Sasuke's. No wonder it felt familiar. But among that, he also saw the blood from Itachi and Neji. His brain had no logical reason for that. It was busy conjuring up a story as to how he was going to explain this one. It wasn't like the "panda" wounds. He can't put on a shirt and make magical pills to cover this one up. "Sasuke," he said and felt pain when the other flinched.

"Y-You're a… demon."

The blond didn't have time to explain. He didn't sense him, but he heard Neji call out Gaara's name. He dodge as a foot (clawed?) slams down on where he was. The floor cracks under the pressure. "Gaara, look at where you are!"

But the red head was too consumed with anger to notice. Naruto would push Neji in front of him, if he knew Gaara would slash him through before realizing what happened. Gaara's hand glows as he forms a spell the size of a boulder. Naruto frown until he realizes hopelessly that not only does Gaara not realize where he is, but who is in the room. Before he can stop him, Gaara release the spell. Naruto decide to cancel out the spell until he saw it split into two, one aiming for him and the other for—.

"NO!"

* * *

Sasuke's mind had been a complete blank when he saw Naruto; eyes glowing red, nails the size of talons, a flame surrounding his body. All he can think was demon. No matter the amount of love, he also felt fear and dread when he realized what it all meant. And yes, he had flinch away from Naruto's voice when he heard his name being called.

But the summoning had worked.

That made Naruto the demon that fell in love with his ancestor. Naruto love someone else. He had a feeling it might've been him, what with his blood working and all. But for Naruto to appear…? It made sense. All those times Sasuke could never get a read on him; it was because Naruto's a demon.

Things got more confusing when something else materialized. Sasuke saw that it was a human. No, not a human. There were too many shapes wrong with it. He was about to warn Naruto when he heard his cousin whisper the thing's name.

"Gaara."

'_No way_,' he thought. _'Gaara's also a demon?_' But then they came here together. So which one was it? Despite everything, he had a sense of hope and that overlapped with his fear. Sasuke didn't fear Naruto. What he felt was the fear of being a replacement. But then Neji… He glanced at the horrifying look on his cousin's face and gulped. _'This isn't good. No duh.'_ He suddenly felt guilty for feeling glad Naruto might not be _the_ demon. If Naruto isn't then that meant Gaara is. So lost in thought he didn't see the blast coming towards him until he heard Naruto scream.

One of Itachi's legs was cut pretty deeply when he was thrown and hit a hanging mirror. But he was conscious. The arm that wasn't broken reached out towards Sasuke in an insane desperate attempt. Neji, Hinata, and Kiba were too far.

Sasuke was pretty much waiting for the damage to come. He waited and waited.

"Damn it, you OCD freak! Snap out of it already!"

He opens his eyes and his heart almost stops. Naruto's back was to him, but that pool of blood is definitely his. Naruto dropped down to one knee and Sasuke was immediately by his side. Naruto's front was covered in blood and when he coughed, there was blood. The skin on his hands probably weren't there, but too much blood to tell.

"Should I call… someone?" Sasuke wasn't sure on hospital policy towards demons, but losing this much blood couldn't be good for them, right? Does septic shock apply to demons? And why is he taking this so well?

Naruto gave him a weak smile and shook his head. "Are you okay?"

'_Oh yeah, that's why.'_ Sasuke look at Gaara and see him starting to calm down.

"Gaara, we really need to stop all this fighting. It's not good at our age," joked Naruto then he coughed. "Ugh, I think that's my spleen."

Yeah, with as much as concern Sasuke was feeling, he definitely flinched. Again, coughing up a spleen could mean different things from a demon. He relaxed, though, when he saw Naruto was joking. Maybe.

Retracting his claws and other unmentionables, Gaara approach Itachi. It wasn't as if he was ignoring Neji. He simply didn't know what to say or do. Hinata and Kiba were at Itachi's side and though puny humans, they wouldn't let him touch him.

"Let him," said Sasuke.

Gaara took out a bottle of salve (from his invisible pocket) and applied to it Itachi's leg. The cuts began to close up. On some cuts, Gaara removed the glass before applying. The broken arm, on the other hand (no pun intended), he wrapped up in a splinter of wood.

After he finished, Gaara threw the bottle to Naruto, who stupidly caught it with his bleeding hands. Naruto proceeded to literally bathe himself in the stuff. Hey, he is bleeding everywhere. There are places Gaara managed to hit that he would never admit.

"You should take him to the hospital," informed Gaara.

Wordlessly, Neji went to help his older cousin with support from Kiba. Sasuke let go of Naruto's arm and follow them out.

Everyone needed time for individual thinking.

* * *

They needed an adult signature and since no one was of age, Sasuke had to call their housekeeper for help. She had not asked them any questions and simply helped them. Then she followed them back to the house where she walked a drugged Itachi to bed.

"Wow, I see butterflies. They're so pretty," he said.

"Yes, yes. Let's go to bed now, alright?"

"Okay." Itachi gave his little cousin and brother a stern look. "No meeting until tomorrow."

They nodded to appease him.

Once he was gone, Neji turn to Hinata. "You should go home with Kiba. It's been a long day."

She was reluctant to leave, but she knew this was heavier on the both of them so she did. Not before informing them she was here if they needed anything. She had the god of death perched on her back when she said it, as if daring them to pull another stunt like that again. Kiba, ever the easy-going person, waved them good-bye and left with his little bride.

Sasuke settle into a chair, exhausted. Neji did the same, though his exhaustion was less obvious. "You alright?" he asked.

"And you are?"

He shrugged. Sasuke isn't sure what he felt about the matter. Confused and tired seems like a good place to start. Sleep would do much better. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

They went off to sleep as much as they can before they meet Gaara and Naruto tomorrow. There is too much to ask for today.

* * *

Itachi was neatly propped up on a chair and his broken leg on a pillow. The meds were knocking around in his system, but it wasn't so bad he couldn't understand what was going on. There is a problem with his coordination. Nothing too serious. He had asked Sasuke to call the two demons up for a chat. Yes, he did say that. Meds and all.

Sasuke and Neji barely slept last night due to stress. Neither voices their concern, but each had ways to vent it. Sasuke sat, fidgeting, while Neji was like a statue, refusing to look at anyone. Kiba and Hinata came too. They insisted on it. The housekeeper was the only out. Oh and the demons.

"They're late," scowled Sasuke. Demons or not, he did not like tardiness.

A few minutes later, they heard voices outside their door.

"Hey, easy!"

Sasuke recognize it as Naruto's voice and fidgeted even more. The blond had lost a lot of blood yesterday, but if he can still yell like that, the injuries must not be so bad.

"Don't be so shy. I healed you, didn't I?"

Oh, the fidgeting has stopped. Sasuke wonder whose voice that was. It sounded too familiar towards Naruto.

"You too, Gaara."

Sasuke glance at his cousin and saw Neji flex his hand. At least he wasn't the only one bothered by it.

Knock, knock.

Kiba opens the door since it seems awkward for any other to do it. He let the door open, but they three outside were hesitant to enter. "Oh, do you need an invitation?"

"We're not vampires, Kiba," answered Naruto, entering.

Sasuke was shock to find not a scratch on him. Any evidence of the fight yesterday was gone. Naruto dressed as normal, casual t-shirt and jeans. The blond looks good.

"So that's Kiba."

A pink (?) hair woman was right behind Naruto. Her eyes were looking around everywhere as if this place was a whole other creature. She didn't bother with Hinata, but showed some interest in Itachi, though he looked too out of it for her. Her eyes checked out Neji and Sasuke before settling on Sasuke. "I like that one. Please tell me the broken one is yours," she inquired towards Naruto.

The blond glared at her. "No. We asked you to come here since you started this whole mess."

"Hey, how would I know Gaara would attack you?" The twinkle in her eyes said otherwise. She examines Itachi with a delicate touch of her finger as if he was contagious. "Hmm, broken leg."

"No duh. Fix him."

"Wait a minute!" Hinata spoke up. "She will not be performing any magical cure on him. We don't even know your intentions. You're demons."

Naruto didn't have to protest. Itachi did it for him. "Hinata, now we can see they mean as no harm. If they did, they would've killed us yesterday. So cure me because I'm tired of seeing that unicorn."

Kiba widened his eyes when he saw Itachi looking straight at him with a strange expression. He looks behind him, but saw no unicorn.

Sakura took out a green vial and hands it to Itachi. "Drink the whole thing. Be sure not to taste it because it tastes absolutely horrid."

Itachi rolled his eyes at the impossible request she gave him, but chugged it. He threw up a little in his mouth. Then he screamed before he gritted his teeth against the pain. Hinata, Sasuke and Neji were immediately by his side.

"What's happening?" asked Sasuke.

"His bones are re-growing. Painful process, I reckon." Sakura lean in to sniff him. "My, you smell delicious. Ever consider going for the techo-color hair type?"

"Alright, that's enough." Naruto pull her away from Sasuke and with a click on his finger, a portal materialized where the front door was. "Bye bye," he said before letting the vortez suck her in.

"Call me," she shouted as her form disappeared.

Itachi felt the pain disappeared gradually until there was nothing at all. He let out a steady breath and stood up slowly. "Nice," he said, hopping on one leg to test it. It seems stronger than before. Not one to forget the important matters, he face Gaara and Naruto. "Thank you. Now we talk."

* * *

**A/N:**

Ah, I broke Itachi's arm and smashed up his leg. Sasuke actually flew, but he hit like a table or the back of a couch. I thought it was funny after I wrote it because of all the people; Itachi was the only one who took damage. Oh, I'm horrible.

You know what I'm into right now? Cell phone novels. They remind me of this manga called Watashi ni XX whatever. I didn't like the manga. The beginning was good, but it went downhill from there. But then I liked the idea of a cell phone novel.

Love it!

So I was reading some. One in particular is so…weird and interesting. It's called the Canterbury Festival, I think.

I so want to end this on chapter thirteen, but oh, there's the details to fill up. And then maybe an epilogue and sex scene.

Hehe, yeah, I don't think there's going to be a sex scene.

And you'll find out why Sasuke is so easy going about Naruto being a demon. He's not crazy. Just very logical.


	18. Chapter 14

_Chapter 14_

They sat in silence. The second Itachi said let's talk, everyone clamped up. Gaara and Naruto weren't sure to begin. Hinata and Kiba weren't much in the loop and didn't know what questions to ask. Itachi felt it best that Sasuke or Neji ask first since they were dating the demons. Sasuke's questions made himself afraid of the answer and Neji?

Neji refuse to talk, especially to Gaara.

"Okay," said Itachi finally. "I'll start." He saw his cousin and brother having difficulty and they weren't going to get anywhere if he didn't interfere. Without the meds, the awkwardness was killing him. "One of you dated our ancestor, correct?"

Dated wasn't the exact word for it. It wouldn't be the word to describe what they were doing back in the old days, but Itachi felt weird saying the word lover.

Naruto crosses his arms and legs and glance at Gaara. The red head did not say anything to the question. To make it more obvious, Naruto gesture towards Gaara, giving an understanding that it was Gaara who "dated" their ancestor.

Sasuke look at Neji to see if he was okay, but his cousin was the same statue he was five seconds ago. He knew better.

Sighing, Gaara explained what happened centuries ago; his love for a man who was eventually murdered by a maniacal best friend. That moment had scarred him, a powerful demon, and to protect future generations until he found the love's reincarnation, he casted a bloodline spell that gifted every child with magical abilities. The spell went a little haywire and gifted every _male_ child, for one reason or another. The spell had been a difficult one to place, but somehow every male child so far had not lived past the age of eighteen and it became known as a curse.

Naruto jumped in at this part of the explanation to say that he had no part in such curses.

Gaara ignored the comment and continued. He has been trying to find a way to lift said curse when later today he was informed that there wasn't any curse placed on this family. Sakura, the pink hair lady, had given them a hint that it most likely was one of the two of them (himself and Naruto) and that is when Gaara decided to kill Naruto.

"Kill first and ask questions later are kind of our thing," explained Naruto when he saw the shock looks from every human in the room.

Naruto's explanation was much shorter. He's been living a normal demonic life, coming to earth every once in a while until he finally met Sasuke. Last night, he called upon Sakura to heal the worst of his injuries and to possibly cause some damage towards her after she was done. But then he came up with a theory of the curse and he needed Sakura to help him solve it.

"You've solved it?" asked Itachi. He only has a few days left to live. One or two, at the most.

"You're not going to like it," said Naruto. He pauses just so everyone can prepare their emotions. "The only explanation to why you're all dying and why we haven't been able to find any solution to the curse is because…there is no curse."

"WHAT?"

"I told you you weren't going to like it. All of you."

"But that makes no sense!"

"We've all been dying!"

"Before eighteen!"

"What does this all mean?"

Naruto wasn't sure who said what since they were all yelling at him. He was able to interrupt them when a flash of lightening bang through the room and more than a dozen of paper works appeared on the desk. He picked one up with Itachi's name and began skimming through it.

"What is that?" asked Hinata.

"The reason I didn't kill Sakura."

Being the smart demon that she was, Sakura prepared a file of the Uchiha and Hyuuga family back to the time when the curse began to be used as a bargaining chip for her life when one of them, or both, came to her in anger.

"Just like I suspected. Your family has a history of high blood pressure."

"High blood pressure? We're dying from high blood pressure?" Sasuke couldn't contain his composure from shock.

"You guys have no medical records, correct?"

They all nodded.

"Because you thought you were all dying from the curse? Thus you never had a flu shot, no vaccinations and no check up." Naruto almost rolled his eyes at the stupidity of humanity, if Sasuke wasn't a part of it too. "It was not uncommon for people to die early, back in the days, but with new diseases and such springing up and you guys never going in for regular check-ups; also adding in high blood pressure, extreme stress from the "curse" and living in a world where they would dissect you upon finding out your magical powers, I guarantee early death."

Naruto stop for a bit to let everyone absorb this in before continuing any further. "I've had Sakura do a scan of every one of your family, regardless of their state of decomposition and found similar symptoms between all of you. I'm no doctor, but I do recommend plenty of fruits and vegetables, exercise and possibly get an update on your vaccinations just to be safe."

To say awkward would be loaded. An intense silence settled in the room. No one knew what to say nor did they want to be the first one to say it.

Then Itachi laughed. His hands were cradling his head in a position of defeat as his laughter rang throughout the room. Somewhere in the middle, he started to cry. The laughing didn't stop. He felt a numb flying through his body; the trembling came from angry and adrenaline. "Stupid," he muttered. "They were so….stupid." Itachi wasn't sure if he was directing it at his parents or anyone in particular.

Sasuke kneel before him, but does not face his brother. He took both of his hands and held them. His brother clung to him while muttering stupid, repeatedly.

Hinata approach Neji and lead him by the hand to Itachi. She knew her brother wouldn't go, otherwise. Kiba was beside her.

* * *

"How's your brother?"

Sasuke didn't look up from where he was sitting. He heard Naruto's voice enough to remember it. "Hinata and Kiba are with him. He'll be fine after some time."

"What about you?" Naruto took a seat close to Sasuke, but not too close.

Sasuke shrugged and stayed quiet for a minute before he asked Naruto, "My parents…?" When he started it, he intended to ask the whole thing, but his mouth clamped up.

Naruto sensed what the other was asking. It was one of the few things he checked to ease Sasuke, in case the question ever popped up. "They're not in hell nor are they in purgatory, or earth. Other jurisdictions is beyond me," Naruto looked up when he saw this.

"…thanks."

He sighed softly. "If you're still mad at me for—."

"I'm not mad," Sasuke gave him a strange look. "Why would you think that?"

"I didn't tell you I was a demon." Naruto presented this fact again slowly. Perhaps the shock had forestall Sasuke's brain from processing this information. Maybe this was the last bit that will drive Sasuke to homicide.

"I was surprised. Besides, I didn't tell you about my power either."

"I kinda figured that out on my own."

"You did?"

"Yeah, when you use it, it feels very invading. So you know."

Sasuke laughed shortly before turning his gaze downward. "I am, afterall."

"What?"

"Angry." Sasuke punch Naruto in the arm, laughing.

Naruto lean heavily against Sasuke, laughing along, before holding him. He felt the other shaking and held on tightly.

* * *

Hinata closed the door slowly. Kiba stayed with Itachi to make sure nothing happens. She sees her brother walking towards her. From his strained eyes and tense movement, she can tell what he was going to ask and intents.

"How is he?" Neji asked.

"He's okay, for now. What about you?"

Neji gave her a quick look before turning away.

She took him by the arm and sat down with him on a seat nearby. Her brother has always been this way, she supposes. Nothing bothers him, because he never let, or shows it. "Why aren't you downstairs?"

"Later."

She sighed. That red head guy was sitting alone by himself downstairs and she knew he was waiting for Neji. He was going to wait a long time. "You remember when I came home one day from elementary? My knees were scrapped and one of my shoes was missing."

"Yeah. Those bullies never messed with you again after I punched one of them."

She grabbed his hand in comfort and remembrance of those times her brother protected her. "I didn't want to tell you and I was smiling when I told you I fell."

"Liar," he joked.

"But you held me and you told me that when it hurts, it's okay to cry because..."

"Because you're still a kid," Neji finished.

She patted his hand affectionately before scooting him off downstairs. He showed his disapproval, but gave her a thank you kiss before allowing her to scoot him off. She watched him leave with a light heart. The idea of her brother mixing in with a demon wasn't terrifying. It could be worse. Arms wrapped around her and shook her out of her thoughts. "Hey you."

"You okay?"

Hinata laughed at how many times that questions been repeated today and nodded her head. "How's ani-sama?"

"That crazy lady from before is in there with him. Should be fine."

She scrunched up her eyebrows. '_Crazy lady?'_

* * *

**Eight years later…**

"Why not?"

Naruto resisted rolling his eyes. That move always ended up him sleeping on the couch, regardless of his winning argument. They have been over this same one regularly for the past month and it was tiring when the answer remained the same. "I've told you, Sasuke, you can't go to hell."

"I repeat the question, why not?"

"The air is toxic to humans and not to mention all the demons that would be fighting to eat your flesh."

"Excuses, excuses." Sasuke fold his arms and took a stand. "Isn't there a suit that would let me breath in hell? And aren't you a great, powerful demon? Or was that declaration out of bullshit?"

"Look, I can't be having demons out there planning to kill me and eat you. And regardless of my title, I can't kill thousands of armies of demons."

"They're going to be coming after me whether you like it or not. I'm human, Naruto. One day, I will die and when I get to hell, I would like to know what I'm dealing with."

Naruto saw his love was not budging. He didn't deny Sasuke's choice to go to hell. That discussion was finalized several months back and involved lots of comforting from Sasuke. Naruto did enjoy being comforted. He would've fought heaven to keep Sasuke, but he had also decided hell wasn't a choice he would let Sasuke make. Though it was finalized, Naruto had his own plans to join Sasuke in heaven and thus he didn't want Sasuke to take a vacation to the fire below. It'll be hard and will probably take him a long time, but Naruto has seen souls reach the light from hell. It wasn't impossible. Naruto found it a good time to bring it up, if only to end the argument.

"Stop following me!"

Naruto growled at the interruption. When he saw it was Itachi, his hand twitched for a fireball. Oh no, not at Itachi.

"Itachi-sama, wait for meeee!"

That. That pink hair woman from hell.

Sakura attempted to cling to Itachi's arm, but he swatted her away. She continued smiling as if nothing happened. "Sasuke, Naruto, how are you?"

"I thought I told you never to barge into my house," warned Naruto.

She batted her eyelashes at him and somewhere in that batting; she tasted Sasuke with one of her looks. "Itachi has way too many symptoms remaining. You wouldn't want him to suddenly croak, do you? I'm way more skillful than any human doctor."

Naruto didn't comment on how her being here wasn't helping Itachi. He was sure Itachi's blood levels would raise a couple inches every time she screeched herself into his life.

Itachi hit Sakura's hands as she reach for him again. "Come on, Sasuke. We still have to meet Hinata and Kiba."

"Oh, did they decide on a date for the wedding already?"

"Yeah," he said while battling Sakura's clingy hands. "I'll wait for you in the car."

"I'll follow you!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Oh god, go back to hell!" he screamed as he ran back to the car, intending to lock himself inside and crank up the music. For one reason or another, Sakura had taken a liking to him after their treatments together. She told him it was because she sampled one of the Petri dish containing his blood and fell in love with the taste. Attacking him would bring Naruto and Gaara's wrath down on her so she opts to annoy him until he surrenders.

"Poor Itachi."

"I'm not done with our discussion," informed Sasuke.

Naruto didn't worry himself too much over Sasuke's anger. That would be resolve later and so he told Sasuke the discussion can continue later on tonight. Sasuke agreed to it, though reluctantly. The blond pull him close and kiss him on the forehead before moving on to his lips. He thoroughly punished it for calling him an idiot before. Naruto move down to the curve of Sauske's neck. The place he regularly took blood from, which Sasuke regularly curse him for, but the blond knew he secretly likes it. A demon's bite isn't meant to hurt. Otherwise, people wouldn't give up their souls for them.

"I-I have to go."

Naruto let him go and walk him to the door. "See you later." Once Sasuke was out of sight, he returned to his study where Sasuke had interrupted him. He had spells laid out to undo curses he casted upon people. It was a start towards good. Maybe he can talk Gaara into helping him, but the man is on his honeymoon with Neji. Best not disturb them, least he gets a hole in his chest. That was not fun.

He lean back in his chair, relaxed and sighing with happiness. He never thought a demon could feel happy if they weren't digging through someone's guts as said person scream to deaf ears, but this is nice. This is better than nice, actually. And he's going to work to keep it that way.

But how would Sasuke react when he finds out Naruto's heavenly plans?

Naruto shrugs. It's heaven. What's the argument?

* * *

**A/N:**

T.T Ah, it's done. It's always sad to end a story. Anyone ever feel that? Also sad when you finish a story. Anyway, I think this is my last year. Not ending my writing, just not here, I suppose.

And yeah, I started a cell phone novel! It's kind of hard to write since there's a limit of words you can use. And you guys should totally watch Burn Notice. That show is genius. It brings so many emotions out of me, like how come that person can't just die? Why is that possible? And what is the deal with the yogurt? Hello, diarrhea. Ah, almost forgot about True Blood. So much blood and nakedness. Boobs, man, boobs. Lol Ok, in all serious, thank you for following this story this far. Honestly, I thought it fell a little after the first chapter, but hey.

Happy Easter, everyone! Bye-bye! Lots of kisses for everyone!


End file.
